The Marauding Five Year Three
by bunny chan
Summary: it's year three at last! oh, loads of pranks [grins some are muggleabled ones ] MPPL :: rr, please?
1. The Warning

AN: Hiya! Had a fine Christmas? Well, the fifth Marauder isn't exactly a 'he' but I'm having another person in mind besides Peter Pettigrew [if you're thinking him…]. I want it to be someone else cause I'm planning to change the _whole_ storyline [hah! Now you can't flame me for anything I'd done wrong! Complains? Fire them off!]. Well, not all though ^^ the Slytherins got out [they got their detention there!], I eventually made a deal with my modem [dumb, don't ask], and I still detest writing on hand, so it'll still be written on the comp! Okay, another one more year for the Marauders ^_^ this time, they go thirteen, isn't it just delightful? Okay, maybe not… hope you like this!!!! R/r!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: what belongs to me is mine. What does not is not.

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 1: The Warning**

James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin sat straight up in bed at about five in the morning in Sirius' house, Sugar Home. If anyone normal saw them awake, they'd probably comment on how good they were to wake up early on the first day of holidays and to start their day off with a morning jog. However, these four had another in mind. Nothing to do with morning jogs, exercise, nothing. They were having Petunia Party.

Lily pulled out a box of chalks from her bag, James sorted out parchments with little doodles at the corner, Sirius started boiling potions and Remus was busy changing papers into something. Sirius carefully tipped a drop of dew from a nearby tree as Lily ran out of the room with the chalks. James was busy charming the parchments white and Remus grinned as he added a spell onto the piece of paper.

After all four had done everything, they ran out to a nearby coffee-shop and ordered a drink each.

'Hiyaz! We're back again!' Sirius greeted the shop-keeper, Jonathon.

'We'd like four cups of hot chocolate!' James said cheerfully to him. He nodded and started making the four cups.

'Sooo how about transfiguring each of Petunia's things into white mice?' Lily asked as they sit at a table.

'Nah! Change her shower water into mud!' James grinned.

'We could turned her into a fatter girl,' Remus said thoughtfully.

'Nope! We'll do all those and we'll poison Petty's food!' Sirius said evilly, a gleam clearly twinkling in his eyes.

'Awesome! But how?' Remus asked.

'We'll add ketchup into her toast, pour soy sauce into her coffee and turn everything else into salt!'

'Okay! I love that!' James said.

'Okay, toast to the Marauders!' Lily grinned, holding up her cup.

'Toast to the Marauders and may we last forever!' Remus added.

'No!! May all our pranks succeed!' James said.

'And may we kill Trelawney in the coming term!' Sirius grinned. Lily agreed immediately at this.

After that, they went for a short walk around Loopy Village.

'I wonder how's Tally now,' Lily said as they crossed by a burnt french cottage. It used to be Tally Chapman's home, but Voldemort had came the year before and killed her parents. Tally now live with her cousin, Elley Rittardo. The Rittardos are a strict wizarding family, and when Tally offered to invite Lily over, she refused as soon as possible.

'Hie!!!! Lily!!! Here!!!' two shrill voice called from behind the Marauders.

'Okay, turn or not turn?' Sirius asked.

'To turn, or not to turn?' James asked again.

'What do you think?' Lily asked, rolling her eyes at them.

'Turn. More polite,' Remus said automatically. They whirled behind to see a thirteen year old blonde and a nineteen year old brunette running towards them.

'Help! We're under arrest!!!!' Sirius cried as they gang laugh before running after him.

'James! Sirius! Remus!!!'

'Why are we under arrest?' Remus asked.

'You forgot already? We charmed those flowers grey-blue yesterday!' James reminded him.

'We did?' Remus asked again, feeling stupid.

'We did,' Lily said firmly. Huffs and pants were heard behind them.

'You guys run fast,' Tally commented, breathing heavily.

'We always had to run from teachers, so practice makes perfect,' Sirius shrugged.

'Why are you here anyway?' Lily asked curiously.

'Lily Evans, we _lived_ here!' Elley said, rolling her eyes as she pointed to a house from where they come from.

'Oh, you lived there?' James asked, jotting down the address.

'Where else do I live?'

'Don't know. Elsewhere I think. Hadn't seen you around anyway,' Remus shrug.

'Can I come over? I mean, we're pretty bored and Elley's parents are out,' Tally said.

Lily turned to her watch, as did James, Sirius and Remus. Their faces split into identical, evil, mischievous grins. They grabbed the two girls and started running all the way to Sugar Home.

'Why?' Elley managed to choke out.

'Aw, just follow!' Sirius said, pushing the door open. 'Mom?'

'Yeah? Breakfast's served!' Melissa called.

'We have guests!' James said in a sing-song voice. 'No, it's not us. Our friends.'

'WHAT? You have freaks over?' Petunia's high screech screeched.

'That's Petty. Come on, we're just in time!' Lily grinned. She led the two to the table and sat them down. Melissa served them omelets along with glasses of orange juice. Petunia glared daggers at them angrily, but said nothing.

'Aunt Melissa, can I please have some toast?' Petunia asked politely, smirking a glance at Lily. Lily smiled sweetly in response as the Marauders all looked on eagerly.

'What's the just-in-time part about?' Tally whispered to Lily as she looked at Petunia eagerly.

'Watch Petunia!'

Tally and Elley looked closely at Petunia Evans. Suddenly, she scream loudly and everyone covered their ears.

'So that's the person that screamed last year on this very day!' Elley mused.

'Bingo! And at the very same time, too,' Lily said, happily biting into her omelet. 'Eat up!'

'LILY!!!! WHY ON EARTH DID YOU PUT CHILI AND PEPPERS INTO MY TOAST!???' Petunia demanded, red in face.

'Oh, I didn't do it. Besides, I wasn't the one to toast it.'

Sirius grinned evilly, hiding his wand in his pocket.

'You'll pay for this!'

'How?'

'With your life! I want your blood!'

'She sounds so much like Snape and a dracula. Very interesting, isn't it?' James said to their guests.

'Very, I must say. I can never think of this!' Elley said in whisper.

Petunia grabbed her cup of coffee (she prefered them to orange) and started gulping everything down. But no sooner had she done that when she started running to the water jug for a glass of water. The glass of water turned into several glasses until she finished the whole jug of it.

'What did you do now?' Tally whispered to Lily, who hid her wand from sight.

'Let's just say that I made her coffee extra sweet.' Tally saw James waving a small circle with his wand and Petunia pulled a face.

'Now?'

'James made it salty. Saltier than sea water. How much did you put in, Jam?'

'Uh, I think I made it saltier than the Dead Sea.'

Tally stared at them in disbelief and turned her attention back to Petunia. The blonde, fourteen year old is now trying to wash her mouth with tap water. Tally and Elley looked at each other and turned to Remus. Sure enough, the boy was waving his wand and muttering something. Petunia suddenly spitted out everything that went in. It wasn't any water, but slugs. Slugs poured out of Petunia's mouth non-stop and she was staring at it with horror.

'LILY ROSE EVANS!!!!!!!!!! I DEMAND YOU TO PUT ME RIGHT BACK!' Petunia boomed as she tried to stop the slugs from pouring. Elley was laughing too hard to help her and Tally was rolling on the floor already. The Marauders grinned before waving at her.

'Very lovely, Petty.'

'Maybe you should do everything again?'

'It'll give us more entertainment!'

'Do!!!'

'PUT ME BACK!!!!!!!'

They all stuck their tongue out at her before pushing Elley and Tally up to their rooms. They closed the door tightly as Elley inspected the tricks in a nearby trunk, duplicated for their holiday supplies of pranks. She pulled out a couple of empty parchments, save the doodles in a corner.

'What's this?' Elley asked.

'That? It's Lily's invention. She has a doodle of herself, James, Sirius and Remus down here. Try writing in it, El!' Tally grinned. Elley pulled a quill from her pockets before scribbling her name on it. Just as the words sank into the paper, four sentences bloomed in the same ink.

'Cool! How did this do?' Elley asked. The paper bloomed.

'Sirius here. Lily did it, don't ask me! I'm innocent!!!' Elley snorted. From her last year's experience, it doesn't look like Sirius has ever been innocent.

'Remus writing. Lily invented this. Isn't it neat?'

'James. I'm one of the first to know, so hehe, one of the first to learn it too!'

'Lily here!!!!! I made it!! Hurrah! Good, isn't it? You can keep this parchment and chat with us whenever you want!'

'Okay, how exactly do you do this, Lily? Seems complicated,' Elley asked Lily.

'Well, it isn't. It's really easy to do and I shan't teach you,' Lily laughed, dropping on her bed.

'Okaay…'

'You can keep it to study if you want.'

'Thanks!' Elley happily pocketed the parchment.

'What are you doing now?' Remus asked, nibbling on a cookie.

'Researching.'

'Researching what?' Sirius prompted.

'Reaserching pranks. Try find their origins and such.'

'Is there even such job?' James asked.

'No. I'm the first along with Billy.'

'What are you guys working at now?' Lily asked as she tied her hair up.

'Nothing. We just finished Biting Pillows, but now we'll work on yours,' Elley grinned, holding up the parchment.

'In your dreams, El. I tried numerous of times,' Tally muttered, grabbing the cookie jar from Remus.

'Ah! But I'm a professional!'

'Yeah right. I'll bet you can't find out how they did it!' Tally challenged.

'Okay, how about 25 galleons?'

'You're on, cousin! I'll give you one month from now!'

'Fine with me. I can finish this mere second-year-creation thing in only one week!'

'I'll throw in my bet with Tally,' Sirius grinned.

'Same here!' Remus said.

'Ditto,' James replied.

'My creation. Can I place a bet on it too?' Lily asked.

'Sure. Go ahead, honey.'

'Very well. I'll place 50 galleons that you can never _ever_ find out how the parchment works!' Lily said, grinning deviously. Everyone turned to stare at her.

'You're betting that much?' James asked in disbelief.

'I trust what I'd made and I trust it a lot. Hey, how about I throw in another prank along?' Lily asked. Elley nodded mutely as Lily handed her a few pellets.

'What are those?' Tally asked.

'These are what made Mrs Norris growing a pair of antlers last year,' Sirius giggled.

'You're the one who made her grew it!' Elley and Tally said in unison. The Marauders nodded.

'Remember Minnie? In that horrid make up?' Remus asked, triggering their memories once again.

'Yeah!!! She looked like a clown from the circus!' James laughed. Their guests looekd puzzled at this.

'What's a circus?' Elley asked.

'What's a clown?' Tally asked.

'Muggle stuff. Hadn't you even heard of circus before?' Lily asked them in amazement. Shakes.

'Okay, we'll go to one someday,' Remus said.

'Hey, we'd better run off now. I want to find this out and get 125 galleons from all of you,' Elley grinned. Together, both she and Tally exited Sugar Home and head back to their house. Lily, James, Sirius and Remus grinned evilly.

'Now, back to our plan with Petty,' Sirius started, rubbing his hands in glee. They all produced their wands and ran to the bathroom. Sure enough, Petunia's horrid voice can be heard humming a tuneless tune. The four winced as they stuffed their ears with cotton before Lily muttered a spell. As soon as she'd done that, a loud scream was heard.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!'

'Not real, Petty, not real,' Sirius whispered deviously before waving his wand and muttering a spell.

'LILY, IF THIS IS A FAKE- AHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT MOVED!!!'

'Not only that, Petty,' James grinned and waved his wand.

'AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT BIT ME!!!!!!'

'Well, not only that!' Remus grinned.

'OH MY!!!!!!!! IT'S A DRACULA SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP!! AUNT MELISSA!!!!!!! LILY!!!!!! JAMES!!!! SIRIUS!!!!!! REMUS!!!!! ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

'Wow, how desperate she is to even call us for help?' Lily mused. Melissa's footsteps were soon heard running up the stairs and the four mounted on their brooms and flew out of the window, just as Melissa burst open.

'Petunia! What happened?' Melissa asked. The blonde had now emerged from her bath and spiders were crawling all over her towel. Some were biting her hard and some were sucking blood from her.

'Aunt Melissa! These dracula-spiders! They fell from the ceilings!' Petunia managed to said from her hysterics. The four giggled silently from outside the window.

'But Petunia, there aren't any dracula-spiders! Not even in the wizarding world!' Melissa replied, confused.

'There are!!!! I said there are!!!!! Look, their sucking my blood here!!!!' Petunia cried, pointing at a nearby spider on her neck.

'Petunia, there is absolutely nothing!'

'But-' Petunia turned to look at the place where the spider had just been. It was only a big, red spot.

'Petunia, I think you have measles!'

'But-'

'I'll take you to the doctor right away! I'm sure you don't want me to heal you with spells! I'm hopeless at healing!' Without another words, Melissa led Petunia out to get dressed and took her straight to a clinic.

Outside, the Marauders laughed helplessly, clunging hard on their broom.

'Dracula-spiders! Dracula-spiders!' Sirius mimicked, doing a short act on Petunia writhing with pain. They laughed even harder. Lily laughed so hard that she fell off her broom.

'LILY!!' James, Sirius and Remus cried at the same time. Fortunately, she managed to hold onto her broom's stick just in time. The boys heaved a sigh of relief.

'Hey, how about we go to the forest?' Lily suggested.

'You sure you're alright?' Remus asked, proceeding to feel her pulse.

'Yes, I'm very fine. Breathing well, heart beating normal.'

'Are you okay?' James asked.

'She's right. Breathing well, pulse normal. We'll go to the forest then,' Remus said. Together, they flew towards the forest behind their house.

'Momma, look! Flying broomsticks!' a young five-year-old girl said, pulling her mother's sleeve.

'Alicia, for the fifteenth time, there are no such thing as witches or wizards! Why did I even buy you that book?' her mother replied, looking around for some herbs.

'But momma, four kids are on them! They're flying! On broomsticks!' Alicia cried, forcing her mother to look up.

'Alicia! Enough of this nonsense! We'll get going already,' Alicia's mother said as she pulled her daughter from the forest.

'Well, so much for muggle-sightings,' Lily breathed from behind a nearby tree.

'Come to think of it, what will happen if Mrs Grew saw us?' James asked.

'Expel or suspension,' Remus answered, brushing himself.

'Should we put a memory charm on dear Alicia Grew?' Sirius asked wickedly, holding his wand up. But before anyone could stop him, the boy had already flew to where Alicia Grew sat in her garden in a nearby house and shot a Memory Charm at the girl.

'Sirius, why did you?' Lily asked in disbelief.

'If any muggle even see any broomsticks, we'll be doomed! We have to!' Sirius retorted.

'But she's just five! She can't remember much!' James said.

'For all you know, she might remember it forever,' Sirius replied.

'Okaay,' Remus said slowly.

'And we'll be on the Daily Prophet! I can see the headlines: Muggle-Sightings by Alicia Grew from Loopy Village!' Sirius said.

'And it'll be all the fun! See what we'd missed?' James said sourly.

Sirius thought for a while. 'Yeah! Hey, is there a way to cure that stuff?'

'I'll do some research. We might need it later on anyway,' Lily sighed.

'How about we play Quidditch?' Remus suggested.

'Sure! Find some stones!' James said. Everyone searched for some stones before handing them to James.

'I don't mean this much! And Lily, why are you carrying that big boulder for? AAH! Don't put it on me!!!' James cried as he ran away. Lily threw the boulder, carried by magic, on the spot where James was standing.

'Are you trying to kill me?' James asked angrily.

'I thought that a small snitch mightn't be a good idea in this woods, so a big boulder'll do to find it easily!' Lily said eagerly.

'Wonderful theory. Grow up!' Sirius said, rolling his eyes at her.

'Since when did you start saying that?' Lily pouted.

'We'd all grown at least a year! It's time you do!' Remus pointed out. True enough, the other three had all had their birthdays already and are now thirteen.

'I shan't care!' Lily said smartly.

'Well, since we did, so do you!' James said.

'Nooooo!!!! What happened to the Marauders?' Lily wailed.

'Still here, still the same,' Sirius grinned.

'Never changed,' Remus continued.

'Never will,' James finished.

'Ha ha ha. So what are we gonna do this holidays? I mean, Petty's leaving pretty soon.'

'First, poison everyone here with the same method we used this morning,' Sirius started. Remus immediately got a notebook to start writing in it.

'Next, we'll use this Biting Pillows in everyone's bed but ours,' James continued.

'Use Droning Tea in everyone's tea but ours,' Lily went on.

'And exchange each soup for Frog Spawn Soup,' Remus muttered to himself, scribbling everything at top speed.

'And oooh! Those Invisible Paint! We have extras, don't we?'

'Throw in the Grubby Macaronis to turn everyone into earthworms!'

'Earthworms?'

'Yep! Imagine getting a chicken over to this village on that day!'

'Everyone eaten up!'

'That's right! Back to the subject.'

'Paint everyone's houses with sugar!'

'Turn all their flowerbeds sick!'

'Best of all, blow up the Rittardos' shed!'

'WHAT? Lily, are you out of your mind?'

'The Rittardos will kill us!'

'Not unless they don't know we did it. Write it, Re!'

'And make everyone hallunicate!'

'Plant Dungbombs instead of corns and cabbages!'

'STOP! Don't you think we have enough for a while?' Remus said.

'Yeah. Now we'll go to Snape's,' Sirius said.

'Talk about that git in the hols? You're mad!' Lily said.

'Not mad, mentally abused, aren't you?' James said.

'Forget it! We'll list what to research on! We have new subjects this coming term.'

'What is there to research on? One is Divination, Lily's best but her most hated and the other is Muggle Studies.'

'What are we supposed to do on Muggle Studies?'

'Study muggles?'

'That's what it meant, yes I know that. But what? Learn maths? English? Science? To think I can get away from them already…'

'From what Gram told me, she says all we need to do is learn how to use muggle devices.'

'Okay, we needn't bother then.'

'So, what are today's events?'

'Go shopping in Diagon Alley?'

'In your dreams.'

'No, I'm not in my dreams, thanks, though I wish I am.'

'Whatever. Any of you wanna see my Playstation? I'm playing Final Fantasy IX!'

'And really absorbed in it. I bet someone cursed it…'

'I heard that, James!'

'You were supposed to. I didn't say it outloud for nothing!'

'Really? Okay, I didn't hear it.'

'Stupid.'

'I heard it now, Lily!'

'You were supposed to! I shouted it at you!'

'Fine, what was it you said?'

'I said you are stupid!'

'Enough already! Let's just see this game of yours.'

'See, even Remus had a sense of game!'

'What was that supposed to mean, we're stupid at games?'

'Exactly!'

'We detest that!'

'Who cares? Come on, let's just go and lemme finish my game already!'

Together, they flew back to Sirius' house to watch Sirius play his Playstation. Remus learned what's a moogle (a pig-like animal that calls "Kupo!"). Lily, James and Remus watched as Sirius controlled the main character towards a cliff end.

'He's gonna fall,' Remus pointed out.

'Hello! This is an RPG game! Remus, they aren't gonna let you kill the character!' Sirius said, rolling his eyes at him.

'Is that so? No wonder,' Remus said, grabbing the controller and proceed to try and control the main character, Zidane Tribal, to jump off the cliff.

'Forget this. We can't just sit here all day!' James complained. He punched the reset button and the screen turned black.

'Hey!! I hadn't saved it yet!' Sirius cried, wailing tears.

'Just use magic!' Lily suggested.

'If this ever responds to magic, don't you think I'll be finishing the game already?'

'Uh, good point. Anyway, let's just go outside and see how Elley is doing with my project.'

'Speaking of it, why did you bet fifty galleons? That's a lot!' Sirius nearly screamed.

'Who cares? I know she wouldn't even manage to find out how I did it. I placed a very hard-to-break spell on it,' Lily grinned.

'When?' James inquired, looking at the CD.

'Just now. When Elley took it. I wouldn't want my money going down the drain. Besides, I hadn't fifty galleons. My parents do, though.'

'Whatever.'

'Suggestion box open to all,' Lily said tiredly.

'Planning revenge on Snape!'

'Planning? Kill him!!'

'Kill him? Torture him!!!'

'Must we talk about him?' Lily asked. She hated the idea of talking about Snape in the warm, summer holidays. 'I vote we go see how Elley is doing!'

'Vote taken,' James said, grabbing his broom before whoosing out of the sliding door.

'Wait for me!' Lily cried, mounting her broom before shooting off.

'I'm not gonna stay here!' Remus called as he, too, flew after them.

'HEY!!!!!' Sirius screamed before flying after them.

**

The holidays passed fine for the Marauders as they did their daily chores. Wake up, cast a spell on Petunia, go to Elley and Tally's, play in the forest, devise a plan for Snape, Filch and Mrs Norris, pull a prank on the villagers and drive Melissa mad. Just a month before September the first, the four received an owl.

'Ow! Stupid owl!' Lily muttered as it pecked her awake. She turned. 'You again! Why did they keep sending you?'

The owl hooted in reply.

'It says, "I'm your owl for this job so you'll stick with me",' James yawned.

Lily glare at it. 'Wonderful. Here's a a present again.' With that, Lily turned the tawny owl into rainbow shades. Suddenly, a large hawk swept into the room and landed before Lily. It gave a sort of cackle before flying off, dropping a letter on Lily, James, Sirius and Remus' bed. Groggily, Remus picked it up.

'What's this?'

'Smart question. If it's Hogwarts' owl, it'll stay here,' Sirius replied, yawning loudly as he turned to a brown owl waiting patiently beside his bed.

'Another fact. Is it even an owl? It looked more like an eagle,' James said, opening his Hogwarts letter.

'Whatever. The letter is sent and I shan't care,' Lily said, toppling the contents of the Hogwarts envelope on her bed. 'What's this? A form for Hogsmeade?'

'We'd gone to Hogsmeade even before this!' James laughed, reading his booklist. 'New subjects? Oh yeah, Divination and Muggle Studies.'

'Whatever,' Remus shoved everything aside before going back to sleep.

'I totally agree with you,' Sirius mumbled, climbing back into his covers.

Lily fingered the envelope the hawk brought. She knocked on it lightly, feeling solid wood. She tore open the contents, wondering who on earth could have sent her a letter in solid wood. She pulled out a wood and suddenly, the room turned dark. Sirius and Remus sat up for the weather suddenly turned cold and Lily and James stared hard at it.

'Hello, dears! I come to bring you a message,' a voice from the wood said. The four listened intently. 'I don't like attacking people behind their backs, thus, had decided to inform you. I shall come after you during any time. Be ready for me,' the voice cackled evilly before fading off. A skull hovered in the middle of the room and they see a serpent in it, hissing. Everything else faded off and the sunlight swam back into the room. The Marauders shivered.

'What was that?' Lily asked, shuddering as she collected all four letters the hawk brought before setting them on the ground. She pointed her wand at it and it burst into flames.

'A warning,' James said suddenly.

'From whom?' Sirius asked.

'Voldemort. He wants to kill us!' Remus prompted. The four shivered. 

'If Voldemort goes after thirteen year olds, isn't he dropping to a low level?' Lily asked.

'Maybe he is. Why would he wanna kill us anyway,' Sirius asked, changing.

'Usually he kills people for the fun of it or maybe strong wizards. Those who wouldn't join him will be killed by the Avada Kedavra, the killing curse,' Remus replied, looking at the burning pile on the floor.

'Well, he'd given us a warning. I think it's best we heed up to it and keep on guard. No going to places alone, okay?' James said in a louder tone.

'I don't want to after listening to that,' Lily shivered.

'Tell mom?' Sirius suggested.

'You're kidding! They'll stop us from attending school if it means missing a whole year's study!' Lily retorted.

'And no Hogsmeade visits!' James added.

'And no pranks allowed!' Remus said, voicing the worst in Sirius' opinion.

'AND you'll get starved,' the three added mischievously. Well, maybe this is the worst.

'NOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Okay, firstly, Remus?' Sirius said, serious all of a sudden.

'Yeah?'

'Research on dark arts! Anything! Lily? James?'

'What?'

'Find the best spells you know! Anything to fight Voldemort!'

'Sirius?'

'Yeah?'

'What about you?'

'You're ordering.'

'I?'

'Yep!'

'I'll eat the food!'

Lily, James and Remus started hitting Sirius mercilessly.

'Ow! I'm just kidding! I'll do the research with Remus!!! Ow!'

Satisfied, the three left him. Sirius got up and brushed himself off the dust. 'Seriously, this room needs some cleaning.'

'Your room, you clean,' Lily said from the bathroom, applying toothpaste on her toothbrush.

'What about this Hogsmeade form?'

'That? Toss them to your mum. She's also our guardian, so no hurt,' Remus said dismissively.

'Let's just get these books and we'll ace again,' James said hopefully, booklist in hands.

'Okay.'

The four trampled down the stairs and ate their breakfast hurriedly before running to the Rittardos'. The Rittardos and Tally were ready to leave by car when the Marauders ran there.

'Hie!! Tally! Wanna come with us?' Lily shouted. Mr and Mrs Rittardo didn't looked pleased with her behaviour, but Elley and Tally grinned at them.

'Hey, you going to Diagon? We can hitch you a ride,' Elley offered, handing twenty-five galleons to them.

'Okay, sure! What are these for?' Lily asked curiously, pointing at the twenty-five lumps of gold in a sack.

'Oh, I lost. Billy and I kept trying and trying, but no luck. So as I'd promised, the twenty-five galleon's yours.'

'Simply wonderful!' James said, hopping into the car. Everyone followed soon after. Lily was just thankful that they needn't use Floo Powder _or_ the Knight Bus. She'd grown to hate the two ways of transport in the wizarding world.

The Rittardos dropped the Marauders and Tally in front of Diagon Alley before leaving off.

'How are we going to get back?' Sirius asked.

'Floo Powder. They're going for holiday,' Tally replied.

'No wonder Elley looked miserable,' Remus said.

'She's sad because they're leaving for a month and Billy has gone to Romania to visit his aunt.'

'Lovebirds,' James laughed.

'Speak so yourself!' Tally said.

'What?'

'You and Lily.'

'TALLY!'

'Okay, I'm sorry!!! Truly, Lily!! I'm sorry!!' But Lily had already placed a Jelly-legs curse on Tally. She now wobble around as the other wizards and witches watched them in amusement. After Tally's legs went back to normal, they resumed shopping.

'So what subject did you choose?' Tally asked when they entered Flourish and Blotts.

'Muggle Studies and Divination. We point the wand blindly on that parchment,' Lily muttered grumpily.

'Cool! Now maybe you can help me with Divination!'

'Not. Mom sent me a Howler when she knows. Course, didn't mind that much. Her idea for a prank.'

'Oh.'

AN: Okay, finished at last!!! I'm not planning to skip any year, so you'd to bear with it, okay? And I can't write much as I've a Major exam next year and blame visitors to pop in to stay just when my cousins left… Also, I'm planning to make this year quite long but chapters really short. That way, you wouldn't have to strain your eyes much longer and relieve your brain from absorbing all my pointless talk in my fics! Review, please?


	2. New Lessons

AN: It's chapter two already! Eager for it? maybe not, but I'll keep writing. Actually, most of the things'll happen in their fourth year. The fifth Marauder, Lily's little premonition in the second year and loads more [can't give everything, can I?]. and here's a pretty long one, so you needn't complain, right? And for the fifth Marauder clue… no, they hadn't met yet :P that's all I'll be giving!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: this is a fanfiction, need I say more?

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 2: New Lessons**

The Marauders waved at their parents, before climbing onto the scarlet steam engine, promising to write. Edward threatened to curse the letter if they didn't send him an owl, and Yvonne was busy trying to stop her husband from hurling a curse right then for drenching him that very morning. The others looked as wet as he was and onlookers wached them curiously.

'Bye!!' James waved, just as the Hogwarts Express started moving. Tally ran quickly into the compartment, throwing herself on the boarding train.

'Just what are you doing, Tally?' Remus asked.

'Let's just say I woke up late, no one brought me and I have trouble with paying the cab. I haven't got even a single muggle money with me until Billy turned up suddenly and paid for me,' Tally breathed, clutching her chest.

'Okay, slow it, slow it!' Lily laughed.

Sirius was busily scribbling in his notepad. James peeped at it.

'Why are you writing "Always forget to bring muggle money whenever you ride a cab"?' James asked.

'Well, since someone paid for this lucky girl here, I thought I might give it a try. Besides, it wouldn't hurt, would it?' Sirius replied, grinning as he shut the notepad.

'I wonder who the Head Students are this time?' Lily wondered. 

'Maybe Bertha Jorkins,' Tally said.

'That girl? She is so stupid she can be frightened anytime!' Sirius said.

'Maybe Kat and Terry,' Remus said hopefully. Catherine and Terrykinns were the mischief-makers, though not very major.

'It'll be fun to have another one from our house, third year in running!' Tally said cheerfully.

'What do you mean?' James asked.

'Before we came to Hogwarts, not many of the Gryffindors become Head students. The last two year was one,' Tally explained. The Marauders nodded, understanding what she meant.

'Hey, guess what I brought?' Lily asked, grinning all around.

'What? You didn't tell us,' Remus said.

Lily threw her trunk lid open and opened a couple of secret compartments in the trunk before settling for the bottomost one. She whispered the password and it flew open. Everyone crammed to have a good look at it.

'What is that?' Tally asked.

'Muggle stuff,' Lily grinned. 'We'll have some fun with it.'

'These are heavy!' James said, pulling onto one.

'They're real, hello!! I bought them from an antique shop. Very expensive, but I managed to wipe up half of my savings,' Lily said, dragging the old-time weapons back before pulling out a sword.

'Nice sword,' Sirius commented.

'Nice? It's magnificent!' Tally gaped, eyeing the little stones embedded in the handle.

'That was what wiped half my savings,' Lily said pointedly. 'Oh, I brought some really sticky glue too. You know, the one for rat trap?'

'Oh, that,' Sirius said.

'Hey, any of you finished your homework already?' Tally said, bringing out one about History of Magic.

'Yeah.' The Marauders looked at Tally.

'Not yet. I need help on this witch burning thing.'

'Oh, you can ask Petty on that. She'll be glad to burn you, so you can even have a practical vision on how it's done!' Lily said brightly.

'Very funny, Lily. Help me please!!!!' Tally begged as she started pulling on their clothes, not letting them go until they agreed to help her.

'I hate you when you're like Sirius,' Lily muttered, writing Tally's essay for Charms.

'I heard that,' Sirius said, busily scribbling in scrawling words across Tally's History of Magic.

'You weren't supposed to, but it'll be fine,' Lily said back.

'Why didn't you do this earlier?' Remus asked, writing in Tally's Defense Against Dark Arts on Kappas.

'Big problem. I played too much with you guys,' Tally grumbled, penning hardly at her Herbology essay.

'And you're blaming us? You came over,' James said in a you-are-ridiculous tone as he refilled the quill before writing on Tally's Transfiguration essay.

'Here you go,' the Marauders chorused, handing over all the jobs Tally had made them help.

'Next time, do it beforehand,' Remus advised, shakinghis fingers to rid of the pain.

'I didn't see any of you doing yours,' Tally snapped. Aha! Caught them, she said gleefully to herself.

'We did ours even before the holidays. On the train ride back,' James said, feeding Jackpot some owl pellets.

Tally stared at them. 'Are you insane?'

'I'm not insane. I thought you knew my name! It's Lily!' Lily said indignantly.

'No, you're mad,' Tally said again.

'I'm not mad either. I'm James, remember?' James said.

'You are crazy then.'

'I'm not crazy! I'm Sirius!' Sirius retorted.

'You are out of your mind!'

'I'm not! I'm Remus! Truly, what went into your head?' Remus said, annoyed.

Tally gave up telling the Marauders what it actually meant. Talking with the Marauders usually takes four lives from you, one for each Marauder. The train ride went peacefully after some time and the compartment door burst open. They sat up.

'Hiya guys! Took us some time to find you all! Why did you choose the last compartment?' Pertsy greeted.

'How's holidays?' Sita asked.

'Heard of You-Know-Who? He killed the McMillans!' Nina shivered.

'He WHAT?' the five jumped at the last bit of news.

'He killed the McMillans! All of them! Lucky Thomas went to live with his cousin, but his parents, brothers all are all wiped off!' Nina said.

'Poor Thomas. I bet he's sad,' Tally said dully. The year before, Voldemort had killed her parents when Lily saw the image in the crystal orb.

'Sad's not exactly the word. He's in hysterics,' Dan said, pulling Thomas in. He looked shaken, very white and his eyes were stony.

'It's okay, Thomas,' Tally started as everyone gave him a group hug. Tally started sobbing as the year before's memories haunt back to her. The time when she received the news of her dead parents.

'We're now one person short in the Quidditch team,' James said dully.

'Right. Our most fabulous keeper gone,' Lily said in a flat tone.

'Don't cry,' Sirius said, as everyone tried to comfort Tally and Thomas crying.

'Don't, Si. They have every right to. Let them let the emotions flow,' Lily advised. Nina, Pertsy and Sita soon joined their friends crying.

'Aren't you even –sob- sad?' Sita said.

'We wish we could, but we can't. We can't cry,' James replied gently.

'Why not? This is sad for someone to have no family left,' Nina sobbed.

The Marauders fell silent. How are they suppose to explain that they can't feel sadness just yet until the next two years? They just watched the scene of the remaining third year Gryffindors crying. The door swung open once again and someone strutted in.

'Hello,' Snape said coldly, but not quite cold when he saw Tally sobbing.

'Buzz off, Snape. They're having a little reunion here,' Lily said, waving a dangerous curse at him.

'What? Are you with him?' Snape hissed lowly, a faint sizzling of his robes nearly burnt signified that the curse had barely got him, since Lily wasn't aiming her wand closely. The Marauders looked up at the Slytherin.

'With whom?'

'Him! Him!'

'Yeah, who's "him"? I don't recall anyone by that name.'

'Spectacular. A Gryffindor with him,' Snape said, allowing a smile to worm on his oily face.

'Wonderful. What is it you're talking now?'

'His first insane word, perhaps?'

'When is he ever sane, Re?'

'Oh yeah.'

'Typical. What curse you hurled at him?'

'Forgotten. Wasn't quite thinking straight at the moment.'

'Which rank are you?' Snape snapped. Everyone turned to him.

'Highest of course. Right hand.'

'No doubt, nu-uh!'

'We're just too great to go down, right?'

'Yep!'

Slowly, the third years watched, Snape backed off from the compartment, stumbling. His face turned a pale shade of white and then blue, and his eyes had a haunted look in them. The third years looked on. Snape hurriedly swept away, tripping into a number of things on his way out.

'What was he talking about?' Tally started, wiping away the tears.

'No idea. We were just playing, but he seemed frightened,' Lily shrugged.

'Hi! Mind if I join? The others kicked me out,' Catherine's voice floated in.

'Sure, Kat! Come on it!' Sirius invited. The door swung open as the seventh year walked in.

'Kat, heard the news? Billy McMillan is killed by Voldemort,' James said gravely.

'Don't say his name!' Catherine hissed. 'Yeah, I heard that. The news just came, didn't it?'

'Yeah. Now we're a keeper short,' Sirius said flatly. 

'True. I wonder if we can find a replacement. Terry's pretty sad about it.'

Then an idea popped into Lily's head. 

'How about Remus taking over him? Remus flies well and he just had a new broom!'

Everyone stared at her.

'Good idea, Lily! Remus just got a new broom since that stupid broom of his flew into the Forest and refused to come out after,' James said. Everyone started laughing when they heard of Remus' broom flying into the Forest and refusing to come out.

'I'll talk to Terry about it. We might put him in,' Catherine said. Then the familiar voice spoke into the microphone, announcing that they will be at Hogwarts five minutes later. The others all hurried to change their clothes, but Lily didn't bother to even move. She just whispered a spell and _Poof!_ She's dressed in her black robes and hat.

'Very useful,' Lily grinned. The other three Marauders went to change and Lily waited patiently for them in the compartment. Just then, heavy footsteps were heard. Lily put down her copy of How Muggles Lived and turn to the door. But instead of the Gryffindors, there were Slytherins. Lily counted seven, including Snape, who were leading them there.

'What do you want now?' Lily asked irritably, picking her book up again, her wand ready in hand. After all, most of the were in their seventh years and Slytherins were rumored to know more of Dark Arts then the whole school all put together.

'Listen, Even, whatever your name is,' a seventh year began in a sinister voice. Lily cut him.

'Excuse me, I have a name and I'm sure you'd heard of it from your Slytherin hero here,' Lily said, referring to Snape. Snape was really popular in Slytherin, counting that the Dark Arts he knew were numerous. 'I prefer my name being called or a curse being hurled.'

His friend whispered something into his ear.

'Listen, Evans, what were you telling Snape just now?'

'Oh, wonderful! Snape, you got yourself a bodyguard?'

'Listen here, Evans, and listen good! You're with him, aren't you?' Snape cut.

'Looks like you really wanted a curse hurled,' Lily said in an amused voice. She pulled her wand before performing a curse and hurling it at them. The Slytherins all looked at her in amazement and their minds were thinking of whether or not to run for it. However, Lily had a different idea. She hurled it right behind them.

'Whoa! Slow it, Li!' James voice laughed. The Marauders made their way to Lily, congratulating James.

'About time you learn how to block it,' Remus said.

'Hurrah!! You blocked that curse at last!' Sirius whooped.

'Yep! But my hand's still a little hot though, ow… why did you make it so hot?' James said, pointing at a small burn on his hand.

'Sorry. Come, I'll heal it,' Lily said.

'What are you doing here?' Catherine's voice asked. The Slytherins turned again. The third year and Catherine were standing at the doorway. 'Move off! I wanna get through!'

Snickering, the seventh year pointed his wand at her. Remus, sensing the curse and what its use it, quickly pulled everyone before the Slytherin had a chance to even fire it.

'Just what are you trying to do with that Unforgiveable?' Remus cried.

'He's going to use one?' Lily asked in amazement.

'I know a curse when I see one.'

'Now, since we have only some time left, how about we play a little?' Sirius suggested. Catherine and the third years all realized what he meant. They petrified all the load of Slytherins, who were still point-blank at where the later group had gone, were caught off-guard.

Smiling, Lily handed a permanent marker pen to each of her fellow friends and everyone started drawing on each of the Slytherins. Snape got the worst though, as the Marauders had a personal grudge against him as his parents and grandparents had against theirs. When they at last let them go, James awarded them with a leaping-frog curse.

**

James, Sirius and Remus bounced hard on Lily's bed, jumping up and down. Annoyed by the disturbance, Lily grabbed her wand from her bedside table, and without even looking who they were, she hurled a hex at them.

'Lily!!! Wake up!' James said, avoiding the spell.

'I wanna sleep,' Lily's muffled mumble came.

'First day at Hogwarts! We got our time-table already!' Remus said.

'WHAT???'

'Oh, in case you don't know, we're planning to be angels this year,' Sirius grinned.

'Why?'

'No, not real angels. We're gonna be goody-goody students and do everything, but we'll be playing our usual pranks!' James said.

'Better than being a complete angel. A devil in disguise of an angel?'

'That's right!'

'Sounds fun!' Lily leapt up and perform the charm. Immediately, her hair rolled itself into a bun, leaving one strand stray to fall all the way back. Her face washed and the robes flew to her.

'First off is Divination!' James said, looking at the timetable. 'And potions and lunch and Muggle Studies and History of Magic and DADA and tea and-'

'Okay, I get the message. Thanks,' Lily said, swinging her satchel behind her before they rushed to the Divination tower.

'Here's the place that stupid stair tripped me,' Sirius said darkly, remembering the first year event when they were looking for secret passages.

'Okay, we understand,' Remus said, rolling his eyes at him.

'Go on up and here we are!' Lily said in a not amused tone. They looked up. A circular trap door was right above their heads and a silvery ladder fell down. Climbing up, James was afraid that it will fall on them. Ladders don't support weight for four thirteen year olds, do they?

They reached up safely and sat themselves on the cushion nearby the window. Upon Lily's request, they sat themselves right at the end of the classroom. Half the class was already filled by Slytherins, Gryffindors and a few Hufflepuff. Tally greeted them cheerfully from her front seat. Snape sat directly behind her and she winced.

'Poor Tally!' Sirius laughed. They turned around to look for the teacher.

'Where's Trelawney?' James asked.

'There's a weird looking insect at the front if you're asking. Ew! This perfume stench!' Remus said.

'And what's with all the fire? She's not teaching us to meditate, is she?' Lily said faintly. The perfumed fire is giving her the headache and she felt like fainting. She nearly collasped, but the Marauders managed to pull her back up.

Suddenly, the insect moved and Thomas and Dan barged into the room, huffing and panting.

'My dears, please, take a seat. We were waiting for your presence, but now that you're here, shall we start?' a misty-dreamy voice said.

'Divination is what you had chose to take for your Ordinary Wizarding Levels and this subject is an art. Those who are gifted with the Inner Eye can "see" our future. Divination is also a sort of-'

James hadn't the feeling to listen to her. If Professor Binns had a daughter, this woman will be her. The droning voice makes him half close his eyelids.

'Oh, dear, do watch out for snakes,' Trelawney said dreamily to Tally. She nodded mutely before shooting a dagger at Snape, who had decided to sit beside her.

'Last year, a student had proved him or herself to have an Inner Eye. He had predicted the death of two unfortunate families. Once, they were saved, but the other died. Will the student please stand up if you're in this class?'

The Marauders were listening intently at this point and Lily was tearing between to stand up or to not. She looked at her friends for help. They shook their heads. Lily nodded and sat still back in her place.

'Unfortunately, maybe the person is not in this year. Anna Hopkins might have a power of a Seer. I sensed aura from you, dear,' Trelawney said. Lily managed to silenced her snort. As far as she'd known, Anna had not even a strand of aura for a Seer. However, the Ravenclaw glowed with pride when the teacher said this.

'Well, as for those who have not any, I think that might go to Evans,' Trelawney continued. James, Sirius and Remus had the urge to scream at her right there and then about her stupid Inner Eye. A powerful Seer or Psychic like Lily could be spotted as easily as there's a black ink on a white cloth.

'Leave her. She's insane,' Lily muttered to them. Clenching their fists, the boys gritted their teeth angrily. How dare she insult their sister who possessed more powers than she does? And a Psychic to add to all her other special abilities.

Tally, however, stood up.

'Professor, I think you must be mistaken. I think Lily has the power of a true Seer,' Tally said bravely. Snape looked at her in awe.

'My dear, Evans possesses not even a tiny inch of power of a Seer!'

'She does!' Tally retorted. Lily tried to calm her friend down, but is far too far to reach her, and since Tally's mind is not in a calm piece of state, it'll be even harder without contacting everyone in this small room.

'Dear, Evans didn't possess anything! You must be mistaken, dear, to have thought Evans possessing any power of a Seer.'

'How blur can she get?' Sirius muttered beside Lily. 'Maybe you can teach this class, Li.'

'Shut up! I don't wanna learn anything in here! Tally's doing a great job in doing so,' Lily whispered.

'But Lily does! She has the powers of a Seer! And a Psychic!'

'Dear, you must have been mistaken! Rarely there are Seers that are Psychic and Psychics that are Seers!'

'Well then, Lily is one of those! How could you have insulted her that way? Lily, why not you tell her?' Tally said, turning to the red head sitting at the back. The Marauders immediately pretended to be very busy. Lily immediately wore her glasses and started reading the textbook with sudden interest.

'Huh?' Lily said smartly.

'Lily, she's insulting you! She says that you have no Psychic powers _or _an ability as a Seer!'

'Maybe I don't then.'

'But you knew well that you do! Who else-'

James and Sirius ran over to clap Tally's mouth from saying that Lily predicted her parent's death and all.

'Ah, I think Tally's a bit too eager, right Sirius?' James said nervously.

'Yep! No doubt!'

The two dragged Tally to the back with them, hissing words as 'you shouldn't have done that!' or 'why did you tell her?' to the blonde. Snape looked at them coldly as Tally seated herself beside Lily, on Sirius' place.

'Who else what, dear?' Trelawney asked, interested in how the conversation had gone.

'Um, nothing, Sybil! Nothing!' Lily said from the back. Tally opened her mouth to protest, but Lily held her wand tightly, so Tally shut it back again.

'Why didn't you tell?' Tally hissed when Trelawney proceeded to talk about more wonders of Divination.

'Why else do you think we're so silent? If Lily hadn't stopped us, we'll bring her to the court already!' Remus responded. Tally glanced at their hands. They were all white from straining themselves to stop standing.

'Now please get a cup each from the cupboard. We'll be doing tea-leaves now, so please turn to your third page, dears.' Trelawney continued on about the instructions as they filled their teacups and drank from them. Sirius handed his cup to James, James handed his to Lily, Lily handed hers to Remus, Remus handed his to Tally and Tally handed hers to Sirius. They squinted hard at their tea-leaves.

'I see something, Tally!' Sirius said excitedly, jumping up and down. Everyone turned to him.

'What did you see?'

'I see tea-leaves. All wet and drenched. What sorta omen is that? Oh, I get it! I'll just drown these leaves!'

'Idiot.'

Lily had no problem at all in reading James' teacup.

'Okay, James, you will be doing some really important things this year. Lots of thinking,' Lily started. The whole class turned to them.

'Such as?'

'Uh, I can't say it outloud when the class' listening,' Lily whispered. 'And something will happen to you and a certain girl next year in summer. You'll encounter near death experience this year and most probably meet Voldemort.'

At the sound of the name, shrieks were heard and some teacups smashed to the floor.

'That was very accurate, Li,' James commented.

'It's all written in here anyway.'

Trelawney glided over to them.

'Please, dear, may I see the cup?'

'Sure, go ahead.' Lily handed her the cup. Trelawney surveyed it closely, turning it this way and that before putting it down.

'Found any faults with dear Lily's prediction?' Remus grinned.

'There has not been a sign where the Dark Lord will appear. Neither a sign of near death experience. Nice try, dear,' Trelawney wheezed.

'Not exactly, Sybil. I believe time will tell, and as a Seer, I'm true to my words,' Lily said gravely. She already hated this professor for looking down at her students and what is with all the fire and perfume?

'You are not a Seer, Evans, and I don't think you have much aura as one,' Trelawney said in a harsh voice. Realizing that she'd been harsh, she suddenly went misty-eyed again.

'Well, I believe what she said,' James said suddenly.

'And why is that so?'

'She's my friend, a sister to me. I know her much more than you do. How can a professor ever judge a student just by one glance? Look, she can make good predictions. See this tree-like thing here? It means near-death experience. This pensive like brain means loads of thinking. And this sign,' James said, pointing to one that looked like a serpent, 'represents Voldemort.'

Everyone sat silent at his words. Remus grabbed the cup from James and studied it.

'He's right, you know. And this little star here means that next year, he'll have something to shock him. Beside the star is this angel-like wings, which meant girl, and the round dot nearby is suppose to mean summer,' Remus said, referring to the book.

'See? Lily is a Seer!' Tally said triumphantly. 'She didn't even need a book to interpret it!'

'I do not think so, dear. This may well be her lucky guess,' Trelawney pouted before gliding to see how Anna is doing.

'Stupid insect,' Sirius muttered. 'Lily, help me look at mine.'

Lily took the cup before studying it for a while. 'Nothing much, Si. It says that you'll still be the same, which meant good signs,' Lily grinned. 'Lucky you!'

'Oh you poor dear! You have the Grim!! The Grim, dear!' Trelawney said shocked. Thomas scowled at her angrily. 'What fate blesses upon this child?'

'Professor, it is not a Grim! It's a-' Dan started.

'Dear dear, you have the Grim!' Trelawney continued.

'Professor, it's a cloud!' Thomas stated. Lily looked at the cup. True enough, it was a cloud.

'You have the Grim, poor dear!'

The Marauders and Tally watched the bewildered, out-of-her-mind teacher and their thoughts were all the same. Is she stupid or just wanted attention?

'Hey Lily! You're having almost the same signs as James here,' Remus said, studying the book and Lily's cup closely.

'I don't care. I'll know my future anyway, since we'll be learning crystal gazing pretty soon.'

'We will not be learning the Orb until your next term,' Trelawney's curt voice said. She had once again glided to the Marauders and Tally.

'I say we will do it by Halloween,' Lily said shortly. She drained the tea-leaves off before studying a new cup for hopes of finding death for this very much hated teacher.

'What are you doing now?' Tally asked when she left.

'Trying to find out when this stupid insect is going to die. Seriously, she gets onto me already. Why did she look down on a student?' Lily said resentfully, pulling a crystal ball from under her bag before placing it on the floor.

'So what's your level now?' Tally asked.

'Which? Psychic or Seer?'

'Both.'

'For psychic, I'm pretty back. Only suited for one of eighteen. As for Seer, I think I'll gladly pass that stupid insect in front. I'm near genius section. Mom's been helping.'

'Why are you still back at Psychic?' Tally asked again, peering into the crystal orb.

'I never bothered with it much. If I did, I would've told you to calm down from the start of the lesson.'

'Oh. Seen anything?'

'So far, she isn't gonna die yet, but I'll bet you anything the Anna Hopkins is going to find out that she is not a Seer.'

'How come?'

'She'll fail in her coming OWLs. Good thing too. Stuck up to each professor like a leech.'

'You're boiling, Li,' Sirius teased.

'I most certainly am, Si. Have any dungbombs?'

'Glad to see that you wanna bomb her now,' James grinned, handing all sorts of things to Lily. Lily made sure Tally had her attention diverted before climbing into the Invisibility Cloak.

'Hey, where'd you get that?' James asked, checking his robes pocket.

'From your pocket. Ssh!'

The Marauders watched Trelawney intently. Soon, Lily returned, grinning in face.

'Where were you?' Tally asked.

'Nowhere. Now watch!'

_BANG! CLASH!_ 'AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' 

'Some Seer. Couldn't she see it coming?' Remus muttered.

'She's bad,' Sirius commented.

'Really bad,' James noted.

'Stupid insect. Hope you enjoyed that,' Lily said victoriously as everyone helped the professor back up.

'Professor, who did it?' Anna asked.

'I had no idea, dear.'

'You're a Seer! Couldn't you have seen it coming?' Dan asked.

'Not for things like this, dear.'

Lily snorted. She could even see Snape's prank on them last year without wanting to.

'I think class will be dismissed now. Thank you,' Trelawney said faintly. Everyone left and Lily made sure to throw a dungbomb at her before closing the trapdoor. More screams were heard.

'What did you do?' Remus asked.

'First, I string the Dungbombs and Fireworks and put a spell on it, so when triggered, it will fire. Next, I added a few stunned powder into some dungbombs. Thirdly, I changed the gunpowder in those explotives into a louder one. Lastly, I placed them all around that insect's table,' Lily said proudly.

'You did all those?' Tally gaped.

'Why not?'

'Nothing. Potions for now.'

'The joy of meeting Halley and, once again, Snape. Not.'

**

The Marauders walked slowly to their class of Muggle Studies, each of them yawning.

'What on earth actually is up to that insect? Huge eyes with small face, crying "You're not a Seer! You're not a Seer!" at a new student, and "You have the grim, dear!" when the cup showed cloud?' Sirius said, referring to the Divination teacher as he acted out the parts when he said them.

'She reminds me of the praying mantis. You know, that insect that has big eyes and a stick like body? Or maybe the stick insect might pass better than her,' Lily scowled. She hated the Divination teacher and promised her revenge on her in her next class.

'Who cares? That is one subject that you'll pass easily, so why bother?' James said, swinging his bag carelessly around.

'I guess I can pretty well coop with it. At least I see something,' Remus said, twirling his wand all around.

'Well, so can I. Sirius' having the problem though. Remember what he said? "I see tea-leaves that are wet and drenched. I think I'll go drown them."' James commented, laughing at Sirius.

'Thanks a lot, James. I know what I see and really well, too,' Sirius said, rolling his eyes at James.

'Well, he's quite right, but drowning those tea-leaves? Can they even be drowned?' Remus wondered.

'Whatever are we going to learn in Muggle Studies? We might as well just ace the class with supreme muggle knowledge besides those muggle-borns!' Lily said, pushing a strand of hair back to place. 'Imagine that! Wizard-born kids aced Muggle Studies with a total of 312%!'

'We lived as a muggle for 10 years without even knowing it. How can our parents do that?' Sirius said in a I-want-independence like tone.

'Ask them. I'm not any of them and not even related to any of their so-call brainstorm ideas,' James said, kicking a nearby armor.

'Same here. I vote we send them a thinking paper!' Lily said.

'And what'll happen?' Remus replied gloomily.

'I've been experimenting on making the written things on the parchment with ourselves in it to be sent directly to our minds, so we can know. It's going pretty steady so far. I just need one more spell,' Lily said excitedly. The three perked up at once. Lily's inventions were genius' work and helped a lot in most of their pranks. However, Lily's Thinking Paper did otherwise. It was suppose to let people converse with the person in the parchment.

'And if they write on it, we'll know what they write!' James said, realizing what Lily had just said.

'Right! I've been testing on Tally's parchment. I bet you received a few messages through mind which said, "Are you guys in love?" or something like that.'

'Damn right. So that's what I've been hearing these days,' James muttered.

'Where's the classroom anyway?' Remus asked. Lily thought for a bit.

'Oops! We missed it!'

'Where is it anyway?' Sirius asked.

'Halfway down the corridor and to the left.'

'Practising Psychic these days?'

'Yeah. I hate this, but mom'll have my hair slashed.'

'Okay,' James said slowly. Lily's hair was left to grow up to her ankles ever since she was seven and had guarded it fiercely from those who were intending to give her a hair cut.

Lily led them to the Muggle Studies room, where Professor Rivers tapped her leg impatiently for the last four students to enter. They entered quietly, much to everyone's surprise and chose the front seats, not to anyone's surprise or wonderment.

'Ahem. Now that our last students had at last, showed up, we'll now begin our subject for Muggle Studies. First, let me introduce you to the subject we're about to learn. Wizards of long time had wondered how muggles live themselves without magic to aid them. How had they survived? How did they managed? These are questions they'd asked. We are gathered here to learn of how muggle do their very own magic called Technology, as they had described. Techno-'

Here's another of Binns' daughter, James thought miserably to himself. However, when Rivers said that they'll be conducting experiments, he perked up. Experiments always meant interesting things like blowing up a slow cooker or something.

'We might have fun in this lesson,' Sirius whispered eagerly.

After another short talk, Rivers made them go in groups to try their first experiment on muggle-related things. Immediately, the Marauders inched closer to each other to confirm that they are a group and planning to keep it that way. After much sorting and all, Rivers handed them each a television.

'I thought electrical things can't work at Hogwarts,' Lily blurted.

'No, they certainly can't, but I'd magicked them, you see,' Rivers explained.

'Wouldn't that mean that you'd completely sabotage this television?' Remus asked, opening the television to inspect. Sure enough, all the wires were gone.

'This is not a television!' Rivers said.

'Oh, then what is it?' James inquired.

'This is a moving box!' Rivers said again.

At this point, Sirius burst into laughter. 'Moving box? Ha ha!! _Moving box_?? Aha ha ha ha!'

'Am I not right? This is a moving box!' Rivers said, puzzled.

'Professor, this is a television! No wonder Arthur last year kept talking to me about moving boxes, ice cupboards, non-owl-post, flying birds and all!' Lily said. The Marauders doubled over, followed soon by all the muggle-borns in the class.

Rivers just looked confused. 'Am I not right? This box, it has moving pictures!'

'It's not any moving picture, Professor! It's a movie! Cartoon, if they are colored animating pictures,' Drolly Ternningham, a Hufflepuff, called.

'Very well, I shall keep that in mind,' Rivers said as she started bustling around for a quill.

After that, the rest of the class went by as they inspected the television. James tried to on it, knowing that it wouldn't work since Rivers replaced the wires with magic and radars and antenaes don't work in Hogwarts. The aerial was aimed at Revere Solles, a Ravenclaw, and she ended up being zapped by lightning.

'Oops!' James said sheepishly.

Sirius, however, found this little part of James' accident amusing. Soon half the class was zapped by lightning.

'Black!! Stop it now!' Rivers insisted at Sirius. He was aiming the aerial at Anna Hopkins and pushed the open button. It hit Anna alright, but the other end backfired, shooting Sirius. He fell down in crisps.

'I guess that's a lesson, Si,' Lily laughed as she fixed the aerial back on rubber gloves.

'One very important lesson: never zap anyone with magic-infecting TVs when the aerial end is pointed at you and your enemy,' James tutted, prodding the unmoving Sirius with his wand.

'Wrong, Jam. It's never point an end of the aerial to you when you're zapping someone,' Remus laughed.

'You are all wrong!' Rivers said in her thick british accent. 'It is not to play with muggle devices!'

'We're gonna love this class if the teacher's as blank as a whiteboard about muggle stuff,' Lily grinned. James and Remus nodded and Sirius coughed black smoke in agreement.

**

Trelawney looked at Lily with utmost dislike when she and the Marauders came into her classroom in the next few lessons.

'She's sour,' Tally whispered to Lily. Lily just scowled.

'She hates me, I hate her,' Lily replied, reading Sirius' palm. The class was progressing quite fast.

'Seen anything, Li?' Sirius asked curiously.

'Wait. Your line of Saturn is quite short and your Venus line can barely be seen!'

'You sound like that insect,' James mused.

'I do? Well, now I hope I don't. Sirius, your love life's bad, so I hope you aren't too down at this.'

'Me? Down? Nah! No girls to bother then,' Sirius grinned.

'Okay, your life's long, good for you.'

'Does that mean that I'll live up to a hundred? Maybe longer than Dumbledore?' Sirius said eagerly.

'Not longer than Dumbledore, I can assure you! Your luck's pretty good, actually. You are boring!' Lily said, pulling Remus' hands from James as she studied the lines.

'I resent that, Li!'

'I shan't care,' Lily said, sticking out a tongue at him. 'Okay, Remus' luck isn't liky Sirius'. Not much happy-go-lucky in here, sad. But oh, look! Your life's quite long too! Hurrah, we'll all have a pretty decent age. I don't know about James.'

'Anything else, Li?'

'Oh wait, your um, worst thing ever happened,' Lily said nervously, glancing at Tally. Remus nodded, understanding, and Lily went on. 'Will not be cured. Some time in future, it'll get controlled, but not cured.'

'That's good news to me. Better than now,' Remus replied gloomily.

'Hey Lily, see mine!' James said eagerly. Lily took his left palm before studying it closely.

'Not much difference from all of us, Jam. Gosh, it looked like we'll all have the same fate!'

'That's good news for me already, thanks!'

'Lily, come help me!' Tally said, peering hard at Dan's hands. Lily ran over to Tally.

'What?'

'Uh, which line is the mount of Jupiter? And which is ring of Saturn?' Tally said.

'Tally! We're supposed to know already!' Lily cried. 'I mean, we'll finish Palmistry after two more lessons!'

'We are?'

'We are. And hurrah for crystal gazing!'

'I hope you have seen the fate in your partner's hands,' Trelawney's misty voice said.

'Oh, very well indeed. We can recite them to you?' Sirius offered.

'Ah! Anna seem to have seen something!' Trelawney said proudly. Anna looked smugly as half the class glared at her. The Marauders muttered 'Show-off' at her, but she ignored it.

'I see that Snape shall have great doom. And oh! What a short ring for Venus! And dear me, mount of Jupiter doesn't look fine here,' Anna said tragically, shaking her head. Snape glared coldly at her.

'Shut it, Hopkins. If you want to impress a teacher, get a life,' Snape snapped.

'But Snape, I was telling the truth!' Anna said.

Lily snorted. 'Yeah right. And the truth stands out like an ant to an elephant. Or maybe a whale will pass.'

The Marauders and Tally giggled at this.

'That's wonderous, dear,' Trelawney said proudly.

'As wonderful as the stars fall from sky and the world meets it's doom,' James said to the Gryffindors.

'And how accurate!' Trelawney continued.

'Like how? A blunt stone?' Remus said, rolling his eyes.

'Snape, dear, you shouldn't be that way to Anna,' the professor continued.

'Dear? Snape?' Sirius laughed loudly.

'Class, Anna is one of our Seer!' Trelawney announced, beaming in face.

'Get a life!' Tally said.

'She needs to see, perhaps? Or get her glasses fixed,' Dan suggested.

'Whatever for?' Thomas asked.

'Hey, I saw Snape's hands before. The line of life is really long. Cuts through his hands,' Dan replied.

'Too true,' Lily sighed. 'You can see it from a mile. Reckon Anna needs a pair of glasses?'

'She cares more of her looks. Why is she even in Ravenclaw?' Tally asked.

'She begs the Sorting Hat to put her there. Wanna stuck up to those professors,' James said.

'How'd you know?'

'I heard her. I can lip-read, y'know,' James grinned.

'Oh.'

'Class, we'll be beginning crystal-gazing this Halloween. You have all proved to be fast learners,' Trelawney beamed.

'Evans once said that, in the first lesson, right?' Thomas DeAnne said, turning to the red head. She bowed proudly, but Trelawney looked stiffly at her.

'That was just her guess,' Trelawney said.

'It was really accurate, wasn't it?' Serena Tappers said.

'Really accurate,' Revere Sollers supported.

'Maybe she's a Seer, professor,' Rollent Ballstic said eagerly.

'Evans is no Seer, dear,' Trelawney said.

'Oh yeah? She seemed much more better though,' Milicent Dork sneered. Much as she hate the Gryffindors, she hated the professor for putting perfumes all over the room and burning incense. Over them, she decided that Gryffindors weren't all too bad.

'Yeah. No need perfume or fire to predict, right Lily?' Tally said. Lily pretended not to listen and started looking at her palm with high interest. Stop it! Lily said mentally to Tally.

Why Lily?

I want this class dead and I'm planning to make it that way pretty soon.

Oh, okay. How?

Wait till Dumbledore comes, kay?

Ok-ay…

'I truly agree, Professor,' Snape sneered.

'Evans perceived very little aura, dear, and I do not trust her to-'

'Hello Sybill. I was just passing by when I heard noises. Everything fine?' Dumbledore said, grinnign from the trapdoor. He hauled himself into the room and dusted himself.

'Everything is fine, headmaster.'

'Sir, you tell Professor that Lily's a Seer!' Tally said instantly.

'But Evans perceive no aura, dear!' Trelawney said.

'Sir, but Lily predicted my parents' death!' Tally said suddenly. That wasn't how Lily wanted it to go.

'Tally!' Lily hissed, as did the rest of the Marauders.

'Uh, oops?'

'Er, Tally's just kidding! Just kidding!' Remus said, laughing nervously.

'What'll your mom say now?' James whispered.

'She'll kill me. She don't want anyone to know,' Lily moaned.

'Literally. You said your life was long,' Sirius mused.

'Yeah, it's literally alright. What I meant are her Howlers.'

'Burn them.'

'Oh. Right. How can I forget that?'

'Sybill, how are classes progressing?' Dumbledore said again, chuckling a little at the Marauders' conversation.

'Very well, headmaster. We shall be getting on crystal-balls pretty soon. I must comment myself that this class is fast.'

'That's really good.'

'Sir, Evans has been helping us,' Dan said eagerly. 'See, she taught me how to interpret those tea-leaves – oh wait, was that Remus? Ah yeah, Remus! – and Lily taught me how to get my lines straight! Want me to read your palm, sir?'

'Um, no thanks, Dan. I, uh, know it pretty well.'

'Headmaster, the students have been-'

'Complaining? I've heard loads just now. And yes, Lily Evans is a Seer, Sybill. She is the one that you wanted to know so much last year, after the Chapmans' death.'

'What? That couldn't be, Headmaster! I perceive very little aura from her!'

'And yadda yadda yadda,' James said waving a little spell. The Marauders laughed at him.

'And yadda yadda yadda,' Trelawney said. The class looked at her with amusement, as did Dumbledore.

'Oh dear, what am I saying?' Trelawney asked.

'You said yadda yadda yadda? Anyway, Sybill, Lily had hidden her aura well, due to um, certain problems from her mother.'

'Why would one hide her aura? It's something to be proud of! And no one can hide any aura, headmaster!'

'Sybill, I assure you that Lily can. Her mother might have taught her that.'

'Her mother? The other very powerful Seer I knew was Rose Herman, a friend of my sister! And I hadn't any news of her!'

'But Rose _is_ Lily's mother, Sybill. I assure you that Lily is a true Seer and a very powerful one, for her age,' Dumbledore said, looking proudly at Lily. 

'If I'm not good, how am I suppose to learn everything myself?' Lily muttered.

'Right! You were so much better than that insect,' Sirius whispered, using Trelawney's nickname Lily had given.

'So much cooler,' Tally put in.

'Maybe you can teach,' Remus grinned.

'And not give any homework!' James said.

'Best teacher ever then,' Dan sighed.

'Best? I don't even think such teacher'll exist!' Thomas exclaimed. 'I'll be in heaven by then.'

'Herman? Evans' mother?' Trelawney said blankly.

'That's right Sybill. Oh my, how time flies! I shall be going now, Sybill. Good day!' Dumbledore waved at the class and left. Trelawney looked stunned for words, but went back to her table quietly before putting a crystal orb before her.

'How about we guess what she's trying to look?' Thomas asked.

'Find out about my parents,' Lily said.

'Start seeing if she'll die soon,' James said.

'Wonder when she'll get sick leave,' Sirius said.

'See how far Lily's powers were,' Remus said.

'Try and find out how much aura Lily had,' Tally said.

'Check on her brain to see if she'd interpreted the wrong message from Dumbledore,' Dan said.

'And I'll add in with her trying to find out what had just happened,' Thomas said.

The class looked at her expectantly and then at Lily.

'So, you're a Seer huh?' Anna's haughty voice said from behind them.

'What's your problem?' Remus asked angrily.

'Nothing. Just wondering how good you were. I bet no better than I am,' Anna said again.

'I'll hate you more than Snape if I can, but I loath him,' Sirius said.

'Too bad, Black,' Anna said.

'Yeah, really bad, ain't it? Right, Li?' James said.

'Very. What's with her anyway? Hey, you wanna start a Gryffindor-Ravenclaw war?' Lily asked.

'With pleasure, Evans,' Anna said with pure venom. She was positive that, after Dumbledore complimented Lily, Trelawney will most possibly pay Lily more attention.

'Anna!' Rollent said angrily. 'You know well we don't want to!'

'Sorry Rollent. I most possibly will,' Anna said. 'They're rivalling us for intelligence for three years already! The top student is usually a Ravenclaw, but these three years, Gryffindor came up top!'

'That's your problem. We'd been gaining talents,' Lily shrugged.

'Yeah, we don't even have to study, but Lily still insist on looking through the subjects,' Sirius said.

'Just to find spells like this to throw at you,' James said and threw a curse at her.

'What? Put me back!' Anna turned into a half whale.

'Sorry. Not gonna. You're lucky I made you half, so you can talk. Be glad it isn't worst. Oh, and Lily's the only one who knows how to counter this,' James grinned.

'Evans, put me back!'

'Blearh,' Lily said, sticking out her tongue. Laughters issued everywhere at Anna as the Ravenclaw flushed.

'You'll watch out, Evans! I'll be after you!' Anna howled, just as Remus looked sharply at her. She started bouncing all over the room, hitting hard at everything.

'You know, jinxes weren't for nothing,' Remus said.

'Oh dear, class dismissed!' Trelawney called. Laughing at the bouncing half-whale, everyone left the classroom. 'Dear, I am not really good with Transfiguration,' Trelawney said worriedly as she tapped Anna with her wand.

Anna turned into a spider.

AN: Okay, since I don't have a clue what Muggle Studies are about [why did I do it anyway? *groan*], I thought I'd just base it by it's title. Besides, give me more chance to play a bit, doesn't it? and as for Divination, I know that Trelawney isn't that way o_o let's just say she change after they left or something, kay? Besides, time can do loads!! And… oh! This is 100 over KB????? One of my longest, or maybe the longest yet. Whatever; I'm insane now. Please review!!!!!!


	3. Halloween Hogwarts

AN: I'd totally forgotten about the existence of Halloween!!!! How could I have? Oh well, this'll be a chapter on it, so all done! Oh, and I wasn't aware that you'll jump to each new person I'll introduce [ulp!] Unless you really wanted Pettigrew on *shudder* and skip the fun, I can try that. Just thought you might want a whole different story from the original. Ideas? I dream of them, and they are NOT pleasant. 'course, I flowered it a little … and I'll be adding Anna Hopkins to a rival list [I always do that :P] thank you so much, those who reviewed for all my stories and even some of them!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: if you'd read each chapter of my fic from start, you won't wanna hear this…

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 3: Halloween Hogwarts**

Severus Snape was suffering from the Marauders. But he wasn't the only one, though. The Slytherin house had joined him in getting rid of the Marauders. Lily, James, Sirius and Remus had carefully painted the whole of the Slytherin common room and almost all their paths with the rat-trap glue Lily had brought. Several traps with heavy, old, sharp and really dangerous weapons planted in them were placed almost everywhere. Boulders fall when you tried to climb the stairs, banana skins were scattered here and there to slip anyone that come across them and a million more unthinkable things.

The Marauders were tired of using magical tools to play their pranks on, thus, had decided on settling with dangerous muggle pranks. Ninchakus were placed in the common room, so that whenever anyone opens the door, daggers flew and the ninchakus will whirl. However, the four weren't really tired of magical stuff. Biting pillows replaced cushions, gobbling chairs took over the comfy sofas and a chomping carpet ate up the Slytherin's green and silver carpet.

Professor Halley was at her wits' ends, finding out all that had been done to her house. She stomped into the Great Hall, whereby everyone was happily eating their breakfast. Owls flew everywhere, looking for the addressees and chattings were heard everywhere.

'POTTER, EVANS, BLACK, LUPIN!!!! WHAT HAD YOU DONE TO THE SLYTHERIN HOUSE???' Halley thundered. Everyone looked quite taken aback by her behaviour, for the professor is normally a happy-go-lucky woman, very much unlike the Slytherins. The Marauders didn't seem to hear her, as they were still talking about their lessons.

'And that Red-Cap went poof!' Remus was talking.

'I hate it when you're so good with Dark Creatures!' Sirius said jealously.

'Talent, Si, talent,' Lily said sympathically, patting him.

'I have talents,' the boy replied in an indigant voice.

'Yeah, you sure do, Si,' James grinned.

Halley stomped over to the Gryffindors table.

'WHAT HAD YOU DONE TO THE SLYTHERINS?' Halley screamed. They casually covered their ears with their fingers.

'Yes, Halley?'

'Hey, d'you know that Halley's a sort of comet? It is one huge one and it happens about every seventy years!'

'Wow!'

'It's also one of the biggest comet ever known! The tail's really, really long and it's really, really beautiful!'

'Hey, cool fact! Halley, you know about this?'

'RESTORE EVERYTHING BACK AT ONCE!'

'Restore what?'

'The Slytherin house!'

'Where is it?'

'It's at-'

'Halley! Do not conceal the whereabouts of your house!' McGonagall said sharply.

'What happened?' Dumbledore asked. 

'Professor! Someone seemed to have messed up the Slytherin common room, dorms, the house!'

'And why did you suspect Lily, James, Sirius and Remus?'

'Er…'

'When is this, Halley?'

'Just a few minutes ago. Everything popped up when the Slytherins woke up.'

'But they had been here an hour ago. They got up early to practise Quidditch,' Flitwick squeaked. 'I saw them!'

The Marauders smiled innocently. One they had practised for a long time and the one that pulled them off suspicions. Halley turned off without a word.

'Hey, speaking of Quidditch, how about we ask Terry to let Remus in? About time, isn't it?' James said. They nodded and made their way to Terrykinns, who was chatting constantly with Catherine and Geraldine Googles, his other friend.

'Hey Terry!' they greeted. 

'What? No greeting for me?' Catherine said, looking hurt.

'Hi Kat!' Lily greeted.

'Hey, how did you guys pull the trick?' Terrykinns asked, looking up from his plate.

'Really long story. We had a few stuff to help us, so do _not_ try this at home. We're professionals,' Sirius grinned.

'Tell!!' Catherine begged. They went back to the common room to talk about it, afraid that if McGonagall hears, they'll be sentenced to detention.

'See, we sneaked into the Slytherin house last night,' Lily started.

'And we brought along what Lily brought,' James continued.

'Placed those weapons here and there, did a few measurements around and a couple of spells,' Remus went on.

'And started our plan,' Sirius finished.

'Yeah, but how?' Terrykinns asked.

'We replaced everything with what we'd gotten from Hogsmeade,' Sirius said brightly. At this point, the two senior years eyed at them.

'Hogsmeade visits hadn't started yet,' Catherine began slowly.

'They hadn't?'

'No. Not yet. Explain now, Sirius!' Terrykinns said.

Sirius! You stupid, stupid dog! Why did you tell? Lily asked him mentally.

What, you think I remembered? It's our usual activity! Sirius retorted.

James, do something!!!! Lily begged.

I'm trying to! Ask Remus for reasons! James replied nervously

Don't ask me! Remus said.

How come our minds are connected? Sirius asked.

Uh, my powers? Do something!!!! Anything! Just something! Lily begged.

I know! Sirius' mental voice said.

What?

Run away!

Good idea, Si.

Okay, on the count of three.

One.

Two.

RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The four sprinted off outside the portrait hole as quick as they can. Terrykinns and Catherine were spinned around as they ran towards their secret room for hiding. Lily made sure that no one was around before whispering the password at the mirror. It opened and they scrambled in, closing it quickly.

'Phew! That was one thing,' Sirius said, breathing heavily.

'Lily, your psychic powers are improving!' Remus said.

'Congratulations, Lily!' James said to the girl.

'Yeah, now I mastered another level. I'm exactly at the same level as my mother,' Lily said.

'Really? Cool!' Sirius said, gaining breath now.

'No, I wanna prove to her that I'll be better. I hadn't told her how good I was progressing; just how bad.'

'Why?'

'So I can surprise her.'

'Okay, but what's the point? Besides, what's the next level?'

'I can show you if you want. I'm practising it already.'

'What is it?'

Lily transfigured a parchment into a spoon. 'Watch.'

They watched. Lily seemed to be looking at the spoon calmly. Suddenly, before their very eyes, the spoon bend into two and a loud crack was heard.

'Ouch! That was good, Li!' James congratulated.

'That was just a spoon. I'm practising on little models now,' Lily said, shrugging everything. 'See what I learnt!'

'What?'

'Want a glass of water, Si?'

'I want food.'

'Name it.'

'Apple pie!' Sirius said at once.

'I want pumpkin cookies!' Remus voiced.

'Cookies will do,' James said simply.

Lily held out a finger and concentrated at it. Soon, a plate of apple pie, pumpkin cookies and chocolate chip cookies came flying in.

'What sort is this?' Sirius asked, cutting a huge slice out.

'Power? It somehow seemed like the Summoning Charm that we're gonna learn next year, but this one doesn't summon. It makes the things. See,' Lily said, transfiguring an egg. She pointed a finger at it and it turned into an omelet. 'Something like a switching spell, but it switches nothing. More like Transfiguration, but this one lasts forever. Very weird one, if you ask.'

Sirius dived for the omelet. 'Good. Next time we're too hungry to walk, we'll just get you to do this.'

'Yeah. It saves time, doesn't it? It isn't quite hard either,' Lily said, turning the plates into cookies.

'I wonder how's Trelawney doing in her room?' Remus asked. They had just planted some Stench Potion in the Divination class.

'Let me find out,' Lily said, taking out a mirror.

'What does this do now?'

'Lets me see what's at the present. Not future, but present, so I guess it's Psychic.'

'Looks like you're working hard.'

'Course! I want mom to know that I'm much better than her and Gram!'

Lily looked hard into the mirror and to the Marauders' surprise, an image suddenly swirled itself from the center of the mirror.

'See? This is psychic. I made it to let you see,' Lily said.

'Very good. Now focus on the Divination class,' Sirius ordered.

Lily focused it at the Divination Tower. They saw Trelawney, furiously beating almost everywhere to find out where the smell has come from. The tables were all upturned and cushions flew everywhere. They saw her turning to her desk and she started scratching that.

'Now I'm confirmed that she's insane,' Lily said.

'Isn't she?' James said.

'We've Quidditch practise in a minute's time! Let's go!' Sirius said. The four burst out of the room, using Lily's psychic powers to summon their brooms to them before flying on them from the fourth floor. They guided their brooms skillfully, dodging the trees and branches, and finally landing on the Quidditch pitch, where Terrykinns and Catherine stood. Droville Rammers was just hurrying over with his broom.

'Hi Terry, Kat, Droville! Mind if Remus becomes the Keeper in turn of poor Billy?' James asked.

Terrykinns nodded, but decided to put Remus into a test first of their flying obstacles.

**

'Potter, Evans, Black, Lupin!!!' Snape stormed into the Great Hall along with the a quarter of the Slytherin house. Half of them were covered with bandages, but looking at Snape made the Marauders laugh. Half his hair was clipped off, a small part of it is not greasy anymore. His skin was dented in a couple of places and bruises can be seen everywhere.

'Yes Snape?' Remus said in a stiffled calm voice.

'How dare you sack the whole of Slytherin house! How dare you! How dare you!'

'Dare what?' Lily asked.

'You fix those traps! All those muggle traps!'

All the muggle-born wizards and witches looked offended and started glaring daggers at him.

'Then why tell us about it?' James asked, biting into his salad.

'Because YOU are a mudblood!!' Snape cried, jumping up and down now.

If possible, the mugggle-born wizards and withces turned even angrier and had started glaring chinese swords at him.

'Stop jumping! You're putting me off my food! Hey, you washed your hair!' Sirius commented. Everyone laughed at the small spot of Snape's greasy hair that was clean and smooth.

'It needs more though,' Lily said, waving a wand at him. Immediately, a soap bucket fell instantly over Snape's head, showering him with ice-cold water and bubbles. Everyone laughed again.

'Hey Snape! You should wash yourself more often!' A fourth year Ravenclaw called at him.

'Shut up or I'll use a curse at you!' Snape snarled.

'Ooh! We're sooo scared!' a Hufflepuff mocked.

Without a word, Snape raised his wand. The Hufflepuff floated straight into the air and started twitching horribly. A misty-blue bubble was covering her tightly.

'Snape! Put her down!' Halley called from the High Table before marching down.

Snape lazily flick his wrist and the Hufflepuff twitched even more.

'Snape!' Remus called before waving his wand at the fifth year. She stopped twitching and fell slowly to the ground, sobbing.

'Just what do you think you're doing?' Halley screamed.

'No one mock Slytherins, professor, and that is what exactly the mudblood is doing,' Snape sneered.

'Thank you, Lupin. Snape, follow me,' Halley said gravely. Without a word, Snape followed her out of the Hall. Remus looked quite shaken as he sat back down.

'Did you know what is he using?' Remus asked the Marauders in a whisper, shaking.

'Dark Arts. Very powerful,' Lily said.

'Right. It's not usual for him to know it. And that was a fifth year Hufflepuff there!' Remus replied.

'Poor you. You're still too weak to cast a spell, Re,' James said.

'Not especially after the Quidditch obstacles and that full moon,' Sirius agreed in a lower voice.

'Go on and eat,' Lily said, pushing him a plateful of turkey. Remus nodded quietly.

As he start eating, the rest of the Marauders turn to the Hufflepuff fifth year. She was still shaking and sweating profusely. Half the Hufflepuffs all turn to her and started comforting her. Lily turned to the Slytherin table. They were laughing and sneering their heads off. Lily held hard onto her wand and healed Remus with a spell before aiming it at the Hufflepuff, healing her, too. She stopped shaking and started to breathe normally.

Lily kept her wand back before turning to the Slytherins table. A blue light illuminated her for a quick moment before the red head turned back to her plate, smiling. Everyone stared at the Slytherins. They were all pinned to the wall tightly by sharp knives.

'What did you do now?' Sirius asked, grinning.

'Very interesting. Maybe we should put one straight in their head?' James suggested.

'That'll mean killing. And I want them to suffer,' Lily said dismissively, cutting herself some cake.

'Okay, what did you do? I know you healed me and that Hufflepuff, but what about those Slytherins?' Remus asked

'I'm playing a little with my psychic. Anytime tomorrow, mom'll send me a Howler, but she won't since it's _Slytherins_ I'm playing with here,' Lily grinned. 'May I help?'

The Gryffindors resumed back to eating, looking at the Marauders from their plates of food, ears alert.

'Back to the subject of Snape,' James said.

'How on earth does he know about that spell? Dad says that it's not even allowed to be used!' Lily said. 'Get back to your food and let us talk, can you?' she snapped at the Gryffindors. They quickly start eating and talking loudly.

'I said Remus is still too weak to cast that counter-curse, but will he listen? No!' Sirius cried, though not too loud.

'Hey, someone had to help!' Remus retorted.

'Yeah. I was about to pull my wand and you came,' James said. 'You saw me reaching for my robes pocket.'

'Oops! Hehe, sorry. But I can't let her stay there much longer, can I?'

'Maybe putting the curse back on Snape'll do.'

'Alright!' Sirius cried. Immediately, stares turned back to them.

'You're all lucky we hadn't yet cast a curse on you,' Lily warned. With that, the Marauders marched out to their secret room, not intending to have their conversations interrupted anymore.

'Does that mean they'd grown up?' Pertsy whispered to Tally. 

'I think not. See, they still played that awful trick on the Slytherins!' Tally said, pointing at the still pinned Slytherins in the wall.

'Right,' Pertsy said sadly.

'They had decided to mask themselves on all their pranks,' Tally explained.

**

Back in the secret room, the Marauders were looking at old books. James was pouring over one titled _How To Counter Dark Arts And Curses_, Lily was quickly scanning pages on _Dark Arts And Their Ways_, Sirius was practically eating up a book called _Dark Arts: Countering and Casting_ and Remus was reading an extremely thick and large book on _Dark Arts – Countering, Casting and Using_.

'Got everything?' James grinned, slamming his book shut.

'I have everything done,' Lily smiled, putting the books back under her bed.

'All finished,' Sirius said triumphantly.

'Everything in favor,' Remus sighed happily.

'We'll get Snape back for casting Dark Arts in school!'

'Get? What did he do?'

'Trust me, he cast a Dark Spell on a student! Isn't that bad enough?'

'Yeah! We never even do it yet! All ours are harmless and really-easy-to-counter charms and spells!'

'They are? Well, there's transfiguration…'

'Anyone can transfigure anything back.'

'Especially Minnie.'

'And we hadn't used much a spell that is too dangerous on others!'

'The only dark spell – okay, not only. It's just one of them – that we used is the one to duplicate ourselves!'

'And I found it out of a book! Just like every other dark spells I found without realizing it.'

'Yeah. Talk about careless.'

'I resent that!'

'I knew you would. So when Snape tried to hurl us a curse, spell, charm, anything, we'll just shoot it back at him. Learn the reflecting charm yet?'

'Learn? Gram taught us all in the holidays!'

'Oh right. I kinda forgot about it.'

'Reckon Snape's a death eater?'

'His family's in Dark Arts, he is in Dark Arts, he used Dark Arts in school – your conclusion? Yes.'

'I'm getting confused. Never mind. Everytime he tried a curse on us, we'll be ready!'

'Reflecting Charm, remember?'

'Yup! The war between the Marauders and Snape has just begun!'

'Not Snape only. Him and the Slytherins! The more, the challenging!'

'Yeah, considering that half the Slytherins knew Dark Arts.'

'This is gonna be such a good practise for us to become Aurors!'

'Yeah. Really good. Our target? Snape and Slytherins.'

'Right!'

'Ssh! Someone's coming!' Lily hushed. Immediately, they hold their breaths. Far off, they heard a tip-tapping of footsteps. Tip-tap tip-tap. It neared their mirror and it stopped right there. The Marauders stopped moving altogether. Remus heard the blood pounding in his ears and his heart thumping hard at his ribs. Will they be in trouble?

Fortunately, it went away and they heard it rushing down the stairs.

'Who was it?' Sirius asked, taking as much oxygen as he could.

'Corn. But what on earth is he doing here?' Lily said.

'Patrolling?' Remus suggested.

'Corn patrolled last night,' James reminded.

'He did?' Remus said.

'Yeah. We were doing things in the Slytherin then. Remember?' Sirius reminded.

'Not really. Oh well, couldn't much be bothered. Planning to stay here or return to the dormitory?' Remus asked. Immediately, they sat in their beds.

'That's staying here. Who'd go back if you know the Gryffindor house is waiting for it's Marauders in their common room?' Lily said.

'How would you know?' Remus said.

Lily pointed to her head. 'Alright, get the Invisibility Cloak out and we'll see what they want with us.'

James pulled a long silver cloak from the trunk and they hid themselves under it. They turned invisible and checked for any body parts left out. Not that they need to anyway. The cloak covered them all beautifully and they slowly crept out from their secret room.

Mrs Norris stared hard. She swore that she's sensed something moving just nearby the mirror. Her whiskers helped her with that. Slowly, the inched to the mirror before getting kicked hard.

'Sirius!'

'Hey, she's too tempting to be left just like that! Taught her not to nose too far anyway.'

'Oh fine!'

'Let's just get going!'

Mrs Norris stared. There are no ghosts at Hogwarts – wait, there are. But which ghost is named 'Sirius'? The cat ran off as fast as her feet allow.

'Stupid cat.'

'Shut up, Si!'

'I am!'

'Sssh!'

'We'll draw suspicions!'

Then the four quietly make their way to the Gryffindor tower.

'Roasted Ham,' Lily whispered to the Fat Lady.

'What? Who's there?' the Fat Lady asked, looking around.

'Roasted Ham, now let us in!' James hissed. The Fat Lady swung the portrait open and they climbed in slowly, for fear the cloak to rip off right there and then. Sirius jumped in after the three had and looked around. Sure enough, whole of Gryffindor house was looking expectantly at the hole.

'Why isn't there anyone?' Catherine asked.

'You mean why did it open?' Sita shivered.

'Show up!' a prefect called. Lily had an idea. She pointed her wand at herself before muttering a charm.

'Huuulooooooo,' Lily said in a ghostly, airy, sound. The Marauders, getting the joke, did the same charm.

'KYAAAA!!!' Remus screamed, exactly like a banshee. Half the Gryffindors are yelped out in amazement.

'Who goes there?' Terrykinns asked. The Gryffindors looked around.

James quickly duplicated the Invisibility Cloak and each one of them took one and covered themselves with it before spreading all over the common room, circling the Gryffindors and whispering ghostly sounds at them.

'Lily? James? Sirius? Remus?' Tally dared.

'Yes?' Lily whispered softly, so it turned out airy and echo-like.

'Are you there, Li?' Tally asked again.

'Yes,' Lily whispered again.

'Show up!' Nina said.

'Don't be too surprised, Nina,' Lily said as another idea popped into her head. Quickly taking out a new can that she'd just bought from Hogsmeade, she put her wand tip in it before touching herself with the tip. Immediately, she looked pearly-white. Then she put a floating charm on herself and hid her Invisibility Cloak.

'Why should we be surprised?' Sita asked.

'Lily? Where are you?' Pertsy asked. Suddenly screams were heard all over as they pointed at a floating ghost.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' The third years joined. The ghost floated gently and started swimming.

'Lily! You're a ghost!! How come?' Tally asked, frightened.

'I fell down the cliff,' Lily replied in the same echo like voice.

'WHAT? What were you doing there?' a seventh year snapped. Lily let out an airy laugh before floating to a corner.

'I was chasing Snape,' she explained.

'And you fell down the cliff?' Nina said in amazement. Sita started crying and Tally sobbed.

'Why are you crying? See, James, Sirius and Remus are with me,' Lily said. As soon as she'd said, the three other figures started floating next to Lily.

'Not you too!' Terrykinns wailed. 'We can't have four of the Quidditch members gone!'

'Hey, it'll be fine! We got a replacement for ya!' Sirius grinned.

'Oh, whom?' Droville asked.

'What? We'd died and all you care about is that?' James said sourly.

'We still have our wands, you know. And we're planning to stay with Peeves,' Remus grinned.

'No! Don't!' Pertsy cried.

'You don't want us?' Lily said, hurt.

'Um, not exactly.'

'Then we'll haunt you to your life end,' Lily said. Immediately, she glowed bright crimson. Everyone back off in a shock as Lily started floating even higher.

'Come down, Li!' James hissed quietly.

'Just doing a dramatic act, kay? Then we'll leave,' Lily said with a wink.

'Just what is going on in here?' McGonagall screamed. Everyone turned to her.

'Professor, they turned into a ghost!' Dan said faintly, pointing at the floating Marauders.

'How can they possibly be?'

'Oh, professor! They _died_!' Nina wailed dramatically.

'WHAT??? THEY _DIED_??' McGonagall cried in astonishment. Tally turned her head to the floating Marauders, who grinned and waved at her. McGonagall stared. At first with shock and then panic. She ran out as soon as possible, muttering about having to see Dumbledore this instant.

The Marauders, deciding that this is enough of fun, left under their Invisibility Cloaks and floated after her. They had decided that maybe floating was faster than walking.

Under the cloaks, they grinned as started huddling in a corner, keeping three of the cloaks into their robes. Lily turned them all back to their original color and took off the floating charm. Hiding back under James' original cloak, they vanished into Dumbledore's office (using a secret passage). Sirius burst the door open.

'Hello Dumbledore!' they greeted.

'Hello Lily, James, Sirius and Remus. I just had Halley bringing Snape out.'

'You gave him a detention?' Lily asked eagerly.

'Maybe take his house points?' James said hopefully.

'And sentence him to Azkaban?' Remus said grinning.

'All but the last,' Dumbledore replied.

'WHAT? He used Dark Arts!' Sirius said.

'Yes, but he seem to have claimed otherwise.'

'You couldn't believe him! Remus countered it!' Lily exclaimed.

'Yeah!' Remus said.

'And he used Dark Arts on another student!' James said.

Dumbledore looked at them, amused. 'Well, I took a hundred points off Slytherin…'

'Okay, that's very fair,' Lily said, sitting on the sofa.

'Very, very fair,' James said, dropping next to her.

'Very, very, very fair,' Remus said, jumping next to him.

'That is so unfair!' Sirius wailed. 'Wait, I mean it's extremely fair!'

'Professor! Evans, Potter, Black and Lupin were dead! They fell off a cliff and-' McGonagall burst in, gasping hard for air.

'Minerva,' Dumbledore started. McGonagall gave him no chance.

'Turned into ghosts! Went to the Gryffindor common room! I saw them, Professor! They were floating! Pearl-white! Almost invisible! You have to send to their parents!'

'But Minnie…'

'We have to find their bodies!'

'Hi Minnie!' James and Lily greeted. Sirius was cackling with laughter and Remus was busy stuffing Sirius' mouth with parchments.

'Oh, wait there, Evans, Potter. I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore about this misfortune that happened to- Evans? Potter? Black? Lupin?' McGonagall said in amazement.

'As you can see, Minerva, they're chatting here with me at the moment, not dead or floating in the Gryffindor common room,' Dumbledore said. McGonagall was gaping at them like a goldfish.

Sirius was still cackling and Remus was still busy stuffing him with more parchments. James was wearing the Sorting Hat and Lily was talking with Fawkes, playing the seashell-flute and Fawkes was singing to it. McGonagall stared.

'But you were in the common room! Floating! White! A ghost!'

'Huh?' Remus said intelligently before stuffing Sirius with more parchments.

'I think I'll leave,' McGonagall said. She left without another word and Dumbledore turned to them, an amused look written clearly on his face. He knelt down beside Remus.

'How many parchments does it take to stop him from laughing?' the old wizard inquired.

'Oh, it's 834, 452 parchments, Dumbledore. As you can see, his mouth is really big,' Remus said.

'What was the Sorting Hat saying to you?' Dumbledore asked, turning to James.

'Something really stupid. Does it always speaks rubbish?' James grumbled.

'Well, as far as I'd known, it tells me rubbish all right. Ssh! Don't tell him!' Dumbledore whispered with awink.

'I like your pheonix,' Lily sighed. 'Wish I could have it.'

'Too bad, Lily. Fawkes is mine!' Dumbledore said protectively.

'Yeah, too bad I can't have a pheonix,' Lily said sadly. 'Oh well, maybe I'll visit Fawkes more often then.'

'You're most welcomed to,' Dumbledore said, smiling warmly at them. 'What is Minerva talking about?'

'Huh? Oh, Minnie was talking about ghosts?' Sirius said, spitting all the parchments out.

'There goes my work,' Remus said sadly.

'A loadful of lousy work,' Sirius replied.

'Who cares? I'll work on it someday.'

'But the ghosts were you,' Dumbledore said.

'She's hallucinating?' Lily suggested.

'Maybe. Hey, we'd to leave now! Bye Dumbledore!' James said. They left, dragging Sirius by the ear (he wanted to hex Fawkes and smash the sorting hat).

'Oh, don't forget the Halloween feast tomorrow!' Dumbledore called.

'Sure!'

'We'll be having a little stage performance. Care to join?' Dumbledore asked.

'Maybe. I'll invite some fairy-folk over,' Lily grinned.

'Thank you.'

'Sure thing! Bye!'

And they left his office.

**

The next morning, the whole of Gryffindor house looked hard at the Marauders. A quarter did a double take, half of them did a triple look at them and the remaining quarter fainted with fright of seeing the supposedly 'dead' Marauders walking and breathing into the Great Hall.

The third years turned blue when the four sat opposite them. Tally turned petrified and Dan was as stiff as a rock. The rest just stared hard at them.

'Aah! GHOSTS!' Catherine and Terrykinns shouted at the same time when they rushed into the Hall.

'Hiya Kat, Terry!' Sirius said, holding up a toast. 'Want one?'

'G- g- g- ghost! You're here?' Terrykinns stuttered.

'Do I look dead to you?'

'H- h- how can you eat? Y- you're dead!' Catherine said, stumbling.

The Marauders burst into fits of laughter as the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins all looked at the Gryffindors. The Slytherins snickered, and started telling everyone that Gryffindors went bonkers. Of course, the Marauders hit them on the head for that and Lily managed to throw a whole new set of daggers at them, narrowly missing their head.

'No, we're not dead,' James said impatiently. 'Aren't you guys ever gonna eat? Cause if you aren't, I want to.'

They slowly shook their heads and watched the Marauders. True enough, Sirius ate up half of the Gryffindor table and Lily, James and Remus ate the other half. They patted their stomachs fondly.

'Today's fabulous! Pumpkin cakes, pumpkin icing, pumpkin cookies – all pumpkin!' Lily said happily.

'I think I'm turning sick for eating too much pumpkin,' Remus muttered, holding his head.

'Nah! You'll heal,' James grinned.

'Look! It's a pumpkin ice-cream!' Sirius said brightly.

McGonagall walked in at that very moment Sirius decided to attack the ice-cream. She was holding her head tightly and a contorted look on her face. Immediately, Gryffindor house rushed towards her and bombarded her with questions.

'Professor, they! Died! Alive!' a fourth year stuttered.

'No Wilkins, they aren't dead,' McGonagall said. Apparently, a few Gryffindors had bumped into her and had questioned her the same question. McGonagall looked green and the Gryffindors decided to give her a rest as she went up to the High Table, muttering things to herself.

They turned to the Marauders. If their teacher cannot answer them, they most certainly could.

'Lily! Explain this instant!' Nina demanded.

'Mmm… I love pumpkin donuts!' Lily said, happily biting into one.

'James!! Remus!' Thomas said, waving a hand in front of them.

'What about me?' Sirius scowled.

'You're too insane to give a sensible answer,' Droville replied.

'Tell us!' a fifth year prefect urged.

'Um, a trick played by our souls?' Remus said.

'Yeah! They left our body last night!' James supported.

'Had a dream you were frightening them?' Lily asked.

'Umhm!' Sirius said, playing with a pumpkin carving nearby.

The Gryffindors looked dazed. But as soon as they were to shoot out another question, Dumbledore stood.

'Welcome to the Halloween at Hogwarts!' Dumbledore started happily. 'We'll have events especially for today!'

'Do we? We don't last year,' Pertsy said eagerly.

'I assure you, we do. First, we'll have a pumpkin carving race outside in Hagrid's pumpkin patch! Once we're watered and filled, we shall be heading that way,' Dumbledore said happily. Immediately, the Great Hall was filled with eager voices.

'I wanna join!' Thomas said.

'You can carve?' Nina said.

'I'm not all that stupid y'know!'

'Whatever. I'm joining if you are!'

'Unfair! You can't carve!'

'Who says?'

'We'll be joining,' James said, quickly scribbling the Marauders' names onto four pieces of parchments.

'It's by groups, isn't it?' Lily asked.

'Yes, six to a group,' Dumbledore answered, smiling. He jingled a box under their noses.

'Nina, Thomas, how about joining with us?' Remus asked.

'Sure, why not?'

James hurriedly scribble everything into a new parchment before pushing it into the box. Dumbledore walked off, jingling the box.

'We'll join!' Terrykinns said, entering a parchment into a box.

'Good! The more, the merrier!' Dumbledore laughed.

'Who're you with?' Sirius asked, pushing half a plate of pumpkin-covered salad into his mouth.

'Kat, Fanny, Luke, Rowan and Melody,' Terrykinns grinned. 'We'll beat you for sure!'

'No! I'll use my wand!' Lily said.

'Oh, and no wands allowed!' Dumbledore said. Lily groaned.

'I'll just use my powers then.'

'Not even any special powers are allowed. In fact, no magic is allowed, so if you know how to use magic without a wand, that's not allowed,' Dumbledore said.

'Oooh, but Psychic isn't magic,' Lily grinned. 'It's a supernatural power and I'll use it to win!'

'Winner gets points for their house,' Dumbledore said again, walking to the Ravenclaws table.

'Even better! With Lily's uh, powers, we'll win!' James said confidently to the Gryffindor.

'Let anyone from Gryffindor win!' Rowan Alps said.

'Yeah!' the Gryffindors chorused, each quickly formed a group so that they will have more chance of winning.

'We'll definitely win! With Lily's mastered Psychic powers,' Sirius grinned to the Marauders.

'Definitely!'

'Professor Dumbledore, the Slytherins will all be joining,' Snape sneered coldly. Since his friends were all pinned to the wall (he just came in), he had to write all the Slytherins' name.

'Good, good!' Dumbledore said merrily.

'Trust him to. I bet you anything he'll get Hagrid to carve a pumpkin for him,' Remus said sourly.

'I'll send a message to Hagrid then,' Lily offered.

'Sure. The faster, the better,' James agreed.

The Pumpkin-Carving Race started and ended with the Marauders and Nina and Thomas winning, thanks to the help of Lily's Psychic powers. She didn't use exactly all, because the group had to scrap off the pumpkin fillings inside neatly before letting Lily to carve it. Gryffindor won twenty-five points for that.

'Yay! And to think we were the fastest!' Nina said happily. 

'And our pumpkin's the neatest too! Lily, you carve good!' Thomas said.

'I helped Petunia carve her head,' Lily muttered, but the Marauders all laughed at it.

'Carve her head empty, Li, scrap all her brain,' Sirius said.

'We helped, so where's our praises?' James said.

'Who cares? The next competition's coming!' Remus said eagerly. They turned to Dumbledore.

'We'll now see a presentation by pixies and fairies!' Dumbledore said happily. Everyone applauded, just as a large flock of fairies flew onto a magically built stage (McGonagall transfigured it) and the pixies scrambled on it before they presented a dance, a comedy script and a brief history on how Halloween began.

'You managed to contact them?' Sirius whispered to Lily. Remus was laughing at a pixie dropping faint because of a vampire.

'Don't ask how. I really don't want to tell,' Lily hissed back.

'We went to find them at the Forest last night. We dropped into their traps,' James muttered, remembering the very embarassing moment the two encountered last night.

'Fine with me if you don't wanna tell,' Sirius shrugged.

'The last one will be after our dinner feast!' Corn said happily. 'Go on, shoo! To the Hall for the feast!'

'What? We're chickens?' Tally said, annoyed.

'Don't shoo at us!' Dan grumbled as he walked reluctantly to the Hall.

'Someday, I think Corn'll go bonkers,' James said to Lily.

'What, I hope he leave as soon as possible. He's starting to freak me out these days,' Lily replied.

The school waited expectantly for Dumbledore to finish his food. When he had, he stood up once again.

'Now, we'll have a quiz all about Halloween! We'll start with Professor Binns, shall we?' Dumbledore said. Binns floated up as everyone scattered into their groups. Those who are not participating watched from the gallery, magicked especially for them.

'I have no wonder if I suddenly fall asleep,' Sirius muttered. The others just laughed at him.

'A very good evening to all participants,' Binns greeted in a boring voice. 'Yes, very fine day, isn't it? The stars are shining and the goblins started rampaging.'

'Professor Binns, please go straight to the point,' Sprout said politely.

'Ah yes. First question; in 465BC, which goblin decided to break free to celebrate Halloween?'

Two hands shot into the air. Anna Hopkins and Lily Evans'.

'Uh, which goes first?' Flitwick asked.

'Me! Me!' Anna said, jumping up and down.

'We'll have it once again, then,' McGonagall said. The two put down their hands and Lily glared at Anna.

As soon as McGonagall shouted three, five hands shot into the air. All four Marauders' and Anna's once again. She looked angrily at them. Had they actually listened to the ghost's lecturing? As far as she'd known, they were sleeping in each of his classes.

'I guess we'll go by quantity then,' Sprout said. Angrily, Anna lowered her arm as Sirius stood up to answer.

'Rebel the Rebellious,' Sirius said happily, sending a smug look at Anna, who glowered red.

'How did you know?' Thomas hissed into Sirius' ear.

'Lily and James told me that in the holidays. Like usual, they swallowed the whole book.'

'Oh.'

Then McGonagall stood up.

'Second question; Which was Ludwy the Lurker's first Transfiguration?'

'I didn't expect her to ask History,' Nina moaned.

Catherine's hand shot into the air. 'Yes?'

'It's a dog. For his pet,' Catherine said, glowing. Five points were awarded and she glowed even brighter.

'Third question,' Corn said, standing up. 'Name me the Unforgiveable.'

Immediately, hushes went all over the room as the group members started whispering to each other.

'God, we didn't learn it!' Thomas whispered.

'Wait, let me think! My dad told me one before,' Lily said racking her head hard.

'James, hit her hard,' Remus said. James hit her on the head.

'What was that for?' Lily snapped. 'Oh wait! I got it! It's Avada Kedavra! I remembered Voldemort saying it once in my- why is everyone so pale?'

'N- never mind. Just tell Professor Corn,' Thomas said, white in face.

'Corn, you shouldn't ask them this! None of them had even learnt it!' Rivers, the Muggle Studies professor, said.

'Well – ah! Evans has the answer!' Corn said happily, turning to te red-head.

'I know! Voldemort uses this one before; Avada Kedavra!' Lily said excitedly. Immediately, all talks died down and half the Hall went white. Some fainted and a few yelped. 'What?'

'She said You-Know-Who's name!' one Hufflepuff whispered.

'A- and A- avada k- ke -' the Ravenclaw never finished though. He sat staring, gaping like a goldfish.

'Ah! Well said, Evans, well said!' Corn said happily. Lily beamed. Maybe seeing Voldemort sometimes isn't all that bad. He helped Gryffindor get five points.

'Fourth question; tell me why Halloween is special,' Flitwick squeaked. Hands were raised everywhere.

'Everyone is more powerful. Spells work more than they did, curses happen, werewolves, draculas and vampires are at their height of powers,' a Hufflepuff said. Remus shivered at the mention of werewolves.

'Right!' Flitwick congratulated.

'I'd like the honor of the fifth trivia, Halley, if you would please,' Dumbledore said. The Potions professor nodded.

'Fifth question; Why are there ghosts?' Dumbledore asked. Whispers and hushes went all around as they asked themselves the question they had never even bothered to think.

'Uh, they brew a potion to die?' Pettigrew said. Dumbledore shook his head and Snape hit Pettigrew hard.

'Squib, you lost us five points!' Snape hissed.

'Any others?' Dumbledore said, looking around the room. Just then, a huge explosion sounded nearby and everyone turned. Remus raised his arm just at that very moment.

'We'll wait, Lupin. Let us see what the explosion is all about,' Dumbledore said.

'It's from Hogsmeade, Professor,' McGonagall said, turning to a nearby window.

Lily let out a loud shriek. 'It's him! Voldemort! He's attacking Hogsmeade! There are some really horrid creatures with him!'

'What is it like?' James asked, trying to look out.

'It's like a rotten corpse. Rotten. And it has a hood. It's bending over someone now,' Lily explained.

'A Dementor! Dad told me about them leaving Azkaban!' Remus groaned. At Remus' words, Dumbledore quickly hurried out.

'No! Don't go yet, Professor!' Sinistra called. 'The stars wants us to wait!'

'Trust her to think like a centaur,' James muttered. Lily opened her eyes. They flashed a while as she looked sadly over the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

'They went already. Flew off. Voldemort too.'

'Just what exactly happened?' Sirius asked.

'The explosion was caused by Voldemort. He was trying to attack a house, I can't remember which. Oh, it's dreadful! And those Dementors were with his. They seemed like they were bending over all the onlookers and ugh! Their mouth's like a huge sack of empty hole,' Lily said, wincing at the memory.

'Lily, what happened?' Tally asked, running to her. 'You seemed rigid for a moment.'

'I was?'

'Yeah. Anyway, looks like Trelawney decided to join us,' Tally said, pointing to where the Divination had suddenly seated herself at a nearby table.

'Stupid insect,' Lily muttered. She still hated her for being negative.

Trelawney went to Dumbledore and said something to him before she left again without another word. Everyone looked at her, puzzled. Lily just frowned.

'Li, why so sour?' Pertsy asked good-naturedly.

'She told Dumbledore that Voldemort's coming after Hogwarts and left without another word. What made her leave her wonderful place and swoop her gloominess to us?' Lily said. Turning to the Marauders, she beckoned them to a silent corner.

''Scuse us, kay?' Remus said before they went. They just nodded.

'Voldemort said beware,' Lily started.

'What? Why?' James said.

'He'll be coming after us, he told me that! He said "Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, beware of your fate for I shall be coming after you! This is another warning from me to you,"' Lily said, putting a really eerie voice.

'What?' Sirius and Remus said together.

'Remember that letter we received?' Lily said.

'Yes.'

'He'll be coming after us. That was no joke. He even used the Dementors – or whatever they are – to attack Hogsmeade! And tons of wizards lived there!'

'Tell Dumbledore?' Remus said.

'And get our heads off? You're kidding! We won't be allowed alone without a teacher!' Sirius said.

'Best I said is we should take extra precautions,' James said.

'I agree with James. Besides, we're in Hogwarts. We'll be safe for the meantime,' Lily said.

'Just hope that we'll live past fifteen,' Sirius muttered.

'Oh, don't worry! We'll live to a ripe, old age!' Lily laughed. That relieved the tension in them.

'What were you gonna answer, Re, when Dumbledore asked about the fifth question?' Lily asked.

'Oh, I wanna say that they just are ghosts and will stay as ghosts since they are ghosts. Stupid answer, really,' Remus said, grinning all over.

'Ah! That's the right answer, Remus! Five points to Gryffindor!' Dumbledore said suddenly from behind them.

'Aaaah!' the Marauders cried in unision.

'Sorry kids. Yes, the answer's correct, Remus, however stupid it may sound. I think we shall just call this a day, shall we? Off, off! Trot to bed now!' Dumbledore said, marching them straight to the Gryffindor tower without another word.

'Who'd knew that random ramblings will win you five points?' Remus said, amused.

'Well, Dumbledore?' Sirius said.

'Talk about stupid talks,' James said.

'Well, I think I'll go to bed. Night!' Lily said with a yawn.

AN: ta-dah! I make this chapter long ^^ about 80KB [at least, when this font size's eight…] so it'll help if my next few chapters are only 30KB each? –splat!- OK, Ok! I'm just kidding! I'll get them longer! Review for me!! Please! *puppy eyes*


	4. Merry Christmas!

AN: Yay! It's Christmas [and it went already… The real one, I mean] at Hogwarts!! I'm gonna make the Marauders go back for Christmas fun. Besides, it's not like I'm writing only about their time at Hogwarts! I know ghosts are people with 'unfinished buisiness' or some sort that triggers their head when they die, but I want them to not know it :P no Anna here, so enjoy! And definitely no Peter Pettigrew as any Marauder!! I'd rather hang myself than let him be one!!!! Forgive my pointless babblings – hope you'll enjoy this!

WAIT!!!

I wanna say sorry cuz I can't manage to post this stupid thing, so … Sorry!!!!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: I'm bored just by talking about this subject… can I skip this part?

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 4: Merry Christmas!**

The cold December greeted Hogwarts with snow, a frozen lake and dead crops in Hagrid's patch. Speaking of the lake, twelve figures were ice-skating on it. Or at least, five were. The rest kept sliding down and fall on their bums.

'Seriously, I can never learn ice-skating! Why are they even invented?' Tally grumbled, rubbing hard. 'Look! I'm wet!'

'Tal, this takes time and practising! See, Kat can do quite well!' Lily said, helping Tally stand up on the ice rink. Catherine was skating happily all over the ring.

'Figures. She can balance, I can't. And she's a Quidditch player; meaning that she's really good at balancing!' Tally complained. James did a cartwheels on ice towards them.

'Nope! Terry's the Seeker and he can't even skate! Look!' James said, pointing to Terrykinns. True enough, he was stumbling, half running, half standing and half dropping on the skates they'd transfigured.

'Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!!!!!!!' Terrykinns screamed as he sweeped near the middle of the lake. Catherine came to his call of despair and helped him stand up.

'Seriously, can't you rollerblade?' Sirius asked.

'What's that?' Dan said, holding Remus tightly so that he wouldn't fall.

'Right. None of you were muggle-born. Sorry.'

'Apology accepted. Now help me!!!'

'Sheesh! These skates are hard!' Nina said as she and Pertsy and Sita held their hands tightly as they slowly walked on ice. 'We did it! We did it! Hurrah!!'

'No you didn't. You're walking, not skating. This is skating,' Lily said, leaving Tally with Remus as she skated gracefully to them before ending it with a small turn.

'Neat, but I can't skate,' Pertsy muttered.

'Hey, don't hold onto each other or you'll-' Lily never got to finish her sentence, for at that very moment, the three crashed onto a nearby tree. '-crash.'

'Thank you so much,' Sita said as she tried to untangle herself from the fir tree's branches.

'You guys should really be more careful,' Lily said as she went over to pull them up.

'Who invented this?' Nina muttered. Everyone else had went over to the bank.

'Maybe we should just leave this,' Thomas suggested.

'What? And what will we play?' Sirius whined.

'We'll take them to sledging!' James said happily.

'What?'

'Sledging! Slide down the snow!' Lily said eagerly.

'Don't tell me you hadn't heard of that,' Remus said.

'Okay, we hadn't heard of it, so explain.'

'No need to. Since you guys aren't up to muggle-sports, we'll just play ourselves then,' Sirius said.

James magicked a sledge and it fell heavily in front of them.

'Maybe we should just slide down?' Lily suggested.

'Whoever heard of owls pulling it?' Remus said.

'We'll just drop and it'll be fun, fun, fun!!!' Sirius said, jumping. He dragged the sledge right to a high slope. Lily, James and Remus ran after him, but Catherine, Terrykinns, Dan, Thomas, Tally, Nina, Pertsy and Sita sat to watch.

'Sheesh, they won't know what fun is,' Sirius said.

'Well, at least they know a prank,' Lily said.

'They know a trick when they see one, but they're hopeless at most sports but Quidditch,' James said.

'Ready?' Remus asked.

'Yup! Now, push!'

They pushed and jumped in straight after that. It fell down slowly first, but it picked up speed and soon, it was rushing all the way down. The Marauders gasped for breath and laughed happily as the snow flew to their faces. They slid down faster and faster.

The eight were watching the Marauders with horror written all over their faces.

'They're gonna crash!' Tally said, jumping up.

The Marauders waved at them before sloping down even lower. Finally, they were about to fly out of hand because of a sudden curve. Lily quickly pulled her wand out and muttered Wingardium Leviosa, pointing at the sledge. Everyone gasped as the Marauders floated just above the curve, laughing merrily.

'I thought you were about to die!' Tally gasped.

'With Lily? I think not!' James laughed. Lily dropped them down just before their friends, sending the powder-fine snow flying in all directions.

'Oh yeah, I forgot about Lily's Inner Eye,' Tally muttered.

'You almost made my heart stopped!' Catherine exclaimed, hugging them tightly.

'Ow! Geroff!' Sirius cried. 'You're sounding like my mum there!'

'You guys okay?' Sita asked, checking them.

'As fine as can be. Honestly, you guys shouldn't worry too much!' Remus said, rolling his eyes.

'The Hogwarts Express' gonna leave in half an hours time. We'd better get going,' Lily said, looking at her watch.

'What? I'm not finished packing yet!' James cried. Immediately, the four rushed straight back into the high castle.

'They're leaving?' Nina said in a downcast voice.

'I guess so. So no Quidditch practices, huh Terry?' Catherine said, nudging her boyfriend.

'With four of it's members gone? Definitely n-o!' Terrykinns said.

'Good cause I'm too lazy to practice on such a wonderful weather,' Catherine grinned.

'What? And lose our chances at Quidditch? I don't care; Catherine, you're practicing!'

'No fair!'

**

Remus waved back at Terrykinns, Catherine, Nina, Pertsy, Tally, Sita, Dan and Thomas as the four Marauders climbed into the Hogwarts Express. Sirius and James were both staggering under the weight of the new Prank Trunk and Lily and Remus were carrying their homework (which is two whole boxful, speacially for them).

'We'll never be able to bring these!' Lily moaned. She pulled out her wand and muttered a charm. Everything soon floated into the scarlet steam engine after the four hand-free third years.

'With Lily or James around, we don't even have to bother,' Sirius grinned to Remus.

'My transformation's tomorrow,' Remus said gloomily. 'Lucky we're going back. The woods are so much better than the Shrieking Shack.'

'Well, if we find a way, we most certainly will,' James said, patting him. Lily's head gave a click.

'I am so densed!' Lily cried, jumping up suddenly.

'What? Is Voldemort here?' Sirius said, grabbing his wand.

'No!!! I need to read through my DADA book again later!' Lily said, her face shining brightly.

'What's the idea?' Remus asked curiously.

'And the Transfiguration! How can I even forget that?' Lily said, glowing even brighter, if that is possible.

'Lily, you're glowing too bright! My eyes hurt!' James said teasingly. Immediately, Lily went dark.

'Must you really spoil it?' Lily pouted.

'Not really, Li, but what's the big idea?' James laughed.

'Are there anymore school rules to break, Remus?' Lily asked. Remus pulled out a small book before reading through them at top speed.

'Everything completed.'

'How about the law?'

'Are you mad, Lily?' James and Remus said, jumping up straightaway.

'No, I'm not mad! This is a chance to help Remus!'

'How?'

'Listen, give me a few months to make some research and I swear I'll tell you. Imagine that; first thirteen year olds to break the Ministry laws!'

'I like that idea now. Maybe it isn't all that bad,' James grinned.

'So,' Sirius said, dropping into a seat, grinning idiotically. 'What do we do?'

'You should put off that stupid grin,' Remus said.

'Petty'll be back,' Lily said gloomily. 'What a nice way to celebrate.'

'Hey, we can snowball her!' James said cheerfully.

'So much for that. Her _boyfriend_ is coming!'

'What?' Sirius, Remus and James choked on their pumpkin pasties.

'Serious! He's coming over!'

'Who on earth will _ever_ love Petunia Telly Evans?'

'That's a good question there. Who?'

'I bet that person'll be really stupid and goofy looking.'

'Quite true. I think he's really fat, blonde and no neck at all. Total opposite of Petty.'

'Ahaha. So much for that. Trelawney assigned us extra jobs these holidays.'

'Just because she hates us, doesn't means she must play unfair!'

'Trust her to go against us.'

'I hope they fire her. Gosh, wouldn't that be cool then?'

'Cool? I'll be higher than seventh heaven already!'

'Flying without wings!'

'Eating peas!' Everyone laughed at Sirius. Sirius absolutely hate peas and wouldn't eat it, even if you pour fifteen sacks of sugar on one pea.

James yawned. 'I'm bored.'

'Snape's on this train?'

'Yeah. Goes back every Christmas.'

'Oh, good! Let's go find him then!'

With that, they left their things everywhere, bring a couple of dungbombs, some thread and a few Filibuster's Fireworks. They hid everything into their robes pocket before walking down the train, looking for Snape.

'He'll pay, trying to poison my food,' Lily grinned evilly.

'He poisoned it?' James asked.

'Yeah. Thanks to Tally forcing half her cooking into me in tea, else, I'll be in the Infirmary still.'

'Sssh! We're here!' Sirius said.

They rounded the thread at the compartment door and tied the ends to the dungbomb and fireworks before grinning to themselves. Remus cleared his throat before announcing to the door that the tea-lady is there. Just as they had expected, the door burst open, revealing Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew and a few other Slytherins.

Meanwhile, when the Slytherins opened the door, everything was triggered. The dungbombs fell down like rain and the fireworks were lit up, bursting all over the room. The Marauders, who were hiding in a corner, safe from all harm, laughed silently to themselves as the Slytherins coughed and started yelling in amazement.

'We're being attacked!' Pettigrew cried.

'You fool! Who'd dare attack us?' Malfoy yelled.

'Lucius has a point, Peter. Who dared to? If it's any of the Slytherins…' Snape said warningly.

'Ya think it'll be that Potter gang?' Milicent Dork said.

'They never went home for Christmas,' Rettier Fletcher said, coughing.

'Shut up, you fools!' Snape yelled loudly. Immediately, they shut up. 'I'll find out who that wretch is,' Snape said again. The tone of the voice held pure venom and hatred. Quietly, the Marauders slipped back into their compartment and picked up some of their homework to do.

Snape burst into the compartment hours later.

'YOU!!' he cried in amazement.

'Hullo Snape! Tally's not here,' Lily said, pushing her glasses closer as she buried her nose into the Charms textbook.

'What are you doing here?' Snape asked.

'We're going home; or hadn't you known?' James replied, trying to make his owl purple. It simply refused to.

'So you did it! Milicent was right!'

'Did what?' Remus asked, looking and shivering at the near last page of their DADA book.

'You! Bomb my compartment!'

'Mphh? Fuomfh fuer fonfaptfen? Fearh!' Sirius said, mouth stuffed full with food.

'Translation: Me? Bomb your compartment? Nah!' James said.

'Fafths fright!!'

'Translation: That's right!!' Lily said.

'Frhy fuer fufsstect fush?'

'Translation: Why d'you suspect us?' Remus said.

'Argh!! Speak for yourself!' Snape screamed.

'Speak what?' James said.

'Say it now or I'll curse you!' Snape threatened.

'Snape, I have my wand here and if you want to try, feel free to,' Lily said warningly. Even if Snape knew much more Dark Arts than most Seventh Years, Lily's knowledge on all sorts of magic – including Dark Arts – surpasses all of them. Also, his chances with Tally might decrease, as Tally is Lily's friend. Sulkily, Snape walked out.

Lily sighed. 'The things he does for love.'

'You mean he didn't because he loved Tally?' James asked.

'Yup!'

'Gosh, he sure is sad,' Remus said.

'Yup!'

'And,' Sirius grinned, 'We have more chances in attacking him!!'

'Definite yup!!' Lily, James and Remus agreed.

**

'There they are!' Rose said. William, Edward, Rose, Orion, Melissa, Romulus and Anne turned to where Rose is pointing at. The Marauders were tugging hard at their trunks and school work from their compartment, for Lily's spell on them seemed to have wore off during their train ride.

'Why did we even bother to bring these trunks?' James muttered, pulling hard at one.

'Point one; you and I both need a place to keep our pranks. Point two; we need a supply at home. Point three; I thought you wanna get at Petunia for calling you a toad?' Lily panted as she dragged another trunk.

'Hey dad! Dad!' Sirius called out loudly.

'Help us!!' Remus sighed, waving a white flag in defeat.

'No! Don't give up, Remus! We'll win these stupid trunks and weight of homeworks!' James cried.

'Yeah! We can do it!' Lily supported.

'You guys needn't come- what? Hey no!! Come here!!' Sirius screamed. Immediately, their parents ran over to them.

'Need help?' Edward asked.

'What does it look like?' Lily panted.

'Uh, no?' William suggested.

'You're mental,' James said, dropping a trunk.

'We are?' Orion said.

'Yes, you are,' Sirius moaned, trying to put down their homework.

'Well, maybe? Or maybe not?' Romulus said.

'Just help already!!' Remus cried.

'Yeah! Help 'em!' Anne said, hitting Romulus hard.

'Yeow!'

'Help us poor kids!' Lily begged.

'Poor?' Orion said slowly, raising an eye on them.

'Kids?' Romulus said.

'You?' William added.

'Help?' Edward said.

'Get on with it!' Melissa cried.

'Yeah!' Yvonne said, hitting Edward.

'Well why don't you?' William said.

'We're girls, you're boys. You're stronger, now go help!' Rose said. The four women pushed their husbands towards the struggling Marauders.

'Why should they suddenly be the voice of reason?' Orion said grumpily.

'Beats me,' Edward said in the same tone.

'They're women?' Romulus suggested.

'You used to be the one,' William said to Romulus.

'Oh, right, we do?' Orion said.

'Can't say James, Lily, Sirius and Remus took after each of us,' Edward said proudly.

'Yeah. We all do, so will you help us now?' Lily asked. Without another word, the Marauders each handed their father their load and ran over to their mother.

'Hey mom!!' Lily cried.

'Hi! How's school?' Rose greeted.

'Why did you suddenly call us back for christmas?' Sirius asked.

'A time for family,' Melissa replied.

'Why must Petunia come along?' James asked.

'She's still Lily's sister,' Yvonne said.

'Why can't you let us at school?' Remus said.

'Let you at school? Never! We'll have to drag you back at least once!' Anna said.

'What did you have for homework? Rocks?' William asked, staggering under Lily's new trunk.

'That's not homework. Our, uh, experiment,' Lily said.

'Homework's all Trelawney's. The other teachers decided that we're saints this year, so they'll let us off,' James said proudly.

'I remember Sybil. Stupid girl. She's teaching now?' Edward grumbled.

'You won't believe her nonsense,' Remus said.

'We know. She keeps telling me that I'll die. School mate,' Romulus scowled at the memory.

'I wish she'd get fired,' Orion said.

'If I have a wish, I'll wish her away from my life,' Sirius said.

'Get on the car already!!' Anne said, pushing everyone into a car.

'Magic huh?' James said, getting in.

'How do you think his car'll fit four families?' Lily said, climbing after him.

'I'm gonna burst the Thompson's shed! We hadn't a chance in summer!' Sirius vowed.

'What? That only? We'll turn everyone back into earthworms!' Remus said.

'Enough already!' Rose cried at them.

'Why?'

'Just stop it! I'm having a headache!' Yvonne complained.

'Pomfrey has a tonic and she gave some to me…'

'Uh, it just stopped,' Yvonne said.

'Oh well, okay. I thought I'd like to see what color your face'll turn out to be.'

'Well, anything new?' Melissa asked.

'Boring stuff. You won't wanna hear anything.'

'We're trying to be saints this year.'

'Not really. We're just devils in disguise.'

'You won't believe what the teachers think!'

'They sent us to Pomfrey just for that!'

'Insane.'

'I thought they'll like us more!'

'Turned out opposite.'

'So we just went back.'

'Oh boy, imagine Minnie's face!!!'

'She looked quite relief at that.'

'Really weird.'

Their mothers just sighed. When are they _ever_ going to grow up? Much as they enjoyed pranks, they wouldn't like it to be too excessive.

'Hey mom, don't tell me that we should grow up. Tally said a lot of that already,' Lily said.

'What?' Rose said blankly.

'Don't start talking like Tally. "Lily, when are you gonna grow up?"' Lily mimicked.

'Dan goes the same way. They should get together,' James said.

'Get together? And they can start nagging us already!' Sirius said, horrified.

'Oh yeah, here're some presents,' Remus said, handing them a blank parchment (save four doodles on a corner) each.

'What?' Yvonne said, blinking hard at her parchment.

'Huh?' Rose said.

'Do we get squirted by ink?' Anne asked, inspecting the parchment.

'Or maybe we get insulted?' Melissa said.

'What's this?' Edward said.

'Looked weird,' William said.

'A prank for us?' Romulus said cautiously.

'You aren't killing us, are you?' Orion said, inspecting the four little sketches of all four Marauders.

'It's a present, dad! You think I'll kill you yet?' Sirius said.

'Goodness knows what you four'll end up as,' Anne said.

'As the new Zonko's manager,' Remus grinned. 'Or at least, Lily'll be the manager and we'll be her assistants.'

'Why is that so?' Rose asked.

'You'll see,' James grinned.

'See? Okay, _revalio!_' Anne said.

Nothing happened to the parchment.

'I have a magic rubber,' William said helpfully. Rose took it and start rubbing hard at the parchment. Nothing again.

'Okay, a drop of potion,' Melissa said, pulling a bottle from her pocket and dropped a drop. Nothing.

'Show your secret!' Yvonne demanded.

Bright violet ink shimmered across her parchment, reading;

_Lily Rose Evans, James Edward Potter, Sirius Orion Black and Remus Romulus Lupin_

_proudly presents the Thinking Paper, made especially for your daily use, office use, home use and magical people! For instructions of use, please say "Help!"_

Everyone jumped in fright, and Romulus, who was driving, swerved the car sharply, causing everyone to topple over.

'Watch it, Romulus!' Anne snapped.

'Oops!'

They turned their attention back to the parchment. Rose pushed it with her wand. It gave a slight shake.

'Aah! Dark Magic!' 

'Help! What's this?'

'Explain now, Lily!!'

'Aaah!'

'Eeps! It responded!'

'This thing looked like it can hear us!'

'Yeow! Stop hitting me, Edward!'

'Sorry William!'

'Romulus!!! Watch that bend!! Watch that bend!'

'Aaaaah!!! Stop screaming!'

'You're the one that's screaming!'

The Marauders watched in amusement at their parents who were arguing. Half about the bewitched parchment and the other half about Remus' father's driving. Sirius did a face, indicating that they were now mentally sick.

'We saw that Sirius!' all eight adults snapped at Sirius.

'Yow! My eardrum's at stake!'

They ignored him and went back talking – maybe it's more of disagreement – without another look at their four, eager watching children.

Lily looked outside the window.

'Think it'll be a white or green christmas?'

'I hope it's white,' James said. 'Snow's good.'

'I'd like a green christmas,' Remus said.

'I want green,' Sirius popped.

'It looks like a white one,' Lily said slowly, turning to the sky.

'Since when are you a weather forecaster?'

'Dunno. I said it _looked_ like one.'

'Whatever. What about Trelawney's work! Stupid insect…'

'That insect needs a little help in head alright.'

'Mental. If she's an animagi, she'll be a dragonfly.'

'Let's just transfigure her into one!'

'We aren't learning human transfiguration yet.'

'Ha ha. You are speaking? Our parents have a library of their old books!'

'How can I ever forget that fact?'

'What's on your head?'

'Sirius' head's full of flobberworms!'

'I detest that!'

'You're supposed to!'

'Am I? Then I don't detest it.'

'You are getting stupider everyday, Sirius!'

'Hey!'

**

'We're home!' Lily cried into her home. 'Gram? Hellooo? Anybody home?'

'Shut it, Lily! I'm trying to read here!' Petunia snapped from the couch.

'Oh, couch potatoe, aren't you? What're you reading?' Lily asked curiously. Petunia hid it away from her view.

'None of your buisiness!'

'Gimme! Gimme!' Lily said.

'Never! Get lost, freak!'

'Okay… _Accio!_' Lily grinned. The paper flew from Petunia's hands to her. 'Now let's see… Dear Petunia, the queen of my heart. I've been aching for your – Petty, this is what you call read? Bleach!'

'Give it back!' Petunia made a grab for the letter.

'I call that fawning,' Sirius grinned from the doorway. 'Mom's talking with James, Remus and your mom in my house.'

'Thought we'd join you a Petty,' James said. 'I smell cookies.'

'Hey, Petty, read that aloud!' Remus said.

Petunia turned purplish red and started shooting insults to them. Lily returned them easily (she has thirteen years of practice) and soon, Lily was aiming curses, hexes and a couple of jinxes to Petunia, who tried hard to dodge them, but failed. In the end, Lily smiled smugly as she led everyone else up to her room.

'Now, how do we torture Petunia?' James asked, dropping onto Lily's bed.

'Let's see, turn her into a bird? No. Charm her green? Maybe, when her boyfriend comes. Frighten her with werewolves? Oops! Remus, I didn't mean it! Promise! We'll get a boggart for her then,' Sirius said, listing everything down.

'Hit her with snowballs,' Lily added.

'No snow yet, Li,' Remus said.

'It just did,' Lily said, pointing to the window. True enough, a few snowflakes were falling gently. 

'It isn't much, but hey! We're wizards and witches!'

'Right, so you got my point?'

'Very much. We'll be over tomorrow morning, magic some snow and start a Petunia Snowball!'

'You're on!'

SLAM!

The four Marauders turned to the door, facing a very red Petunia.

'How dare you!!'

'What?' Lily asked blankly.

'You burnt it! How dare you burn it!!!'

'Burn what?' James asked quizzically.

'You stay out of this! Explain!' Petunia snapped.

'Explain what?' Lily asked, as blank as ever.

'You burnt Vernon's letter!!! Give it back to me!!!!' Petunia screamed, shaking the house.

'Ahem. Dear Petunia. I am very much filled with grief, as our sorrowful love will not meet this fateful Christmas. My parents had strictly disallow me to…' Lily said in a heartfelt tone.

'No nooo!! Don't read it outloud, idiot!! Give me that letter!' Petunia screeched. She'd rather Lily burn the letter than to read it aloud to her friends.

Lily handed her the paper. Petunia stared.

'Lily! Give it to me! This is BLANK!!!!' Petunia screamed, jumping.

'Blank? Oh, you play my game too?' Sirius asked with interest.

'What game?'

'Final Fantasy 9. There's this guy called Blank.'

'Give me back my letter, Lily!!! And what are you talking about??'

'I burnt it,' Lily said, dropping some ashes onto the floor.

'You read it!!!'

'Seriously, you forgotten that I'd a good memory?'

'Noooo!!!!!!' Petunia's wails echoed far to the mountains, shaking the whole of Loopy Village.

'Now, get out of the room,' Remus advised. Sobbing, Petunia left, slamming the door after her.

'Well, where's the real letter Li?' James asked.

Grinning, Lily produced a letter from her pocket. Sirius grabbed it, scan through half of the long letter and made a sick face before turning blue and choking. Remus took it from him, read a few lines before paling into a sick green. James, curious, snatched the letter and read it. He turned yellow and started choking with laughter.

'Disgusting, isn't it?' Lily said.

'Blearh!'

'Good. Who vote that I blackmail Petty? Or should I just burn it?'

'Blackmail!!' the boys chorused.

Hurriedly, they ran out to blackmail Lily's sister. Petunia was glad that Lily had a copy (to avoid being deaf to death) and enraged because she had turned slave to the mischievous four.

**

'Wake up!!!' Yvonne shouted loudly in James' bedroom. 'It's eight, and you don't want to miss your presents!'

James just kept on sleeping. From the back, Yvonne heard Lily's window slam open.

'Hie!! James! It's christmas! Get up!'

Yvonne smiled to herself before opening James' window and calling back to Lily.

'He's still asleep, Lily! He won't be up until noon!!'

'Still hasn't break that habit?' Remus snorted from his window.

'Can't say he has,' Yvonne called back.

'Oh, I know someone that can!' Sirius grinned from his window.

'Whom? Oh, come over for Christmas!' Yvonne invited.

Three windows slammed shut and clutters of footsteps can be heard running down the stairs at the same time. Yvonne shook her head. And turned to her still sleeping son. 

'JAMES POTTER, GET UP THIS INSTANCE!' Yvonne shouted as loud as she can. But James barely even budged.

'One would've thought that you have cottons in your ear that repels all sounds,' Yvonne muttered before the door burst open and three teenagers ran in.

'Hey aunt Yvonne!' Lily greeted.

'Y'awake?' Sirius asked, prodding James hard with his wand.

'He'll be sleeping through the earthquake,' Remus explained.

'Not with someone,' Sirius said, grinning suddenly.

'I'm off for cookies!' Lily said, running off that very instance.

'What? It's cookies she's after when she knew I couldn't bake?' Yvonne asked.

'No, she just don't wanna wake James,' Remus said.

'How?'

'Kiss him awake.'

'I tried it. He seems to have put a spell on himself or something. Truly, this son of mine is one lazy boy!'

'Well…'

Sirius ran out of the room, much to Yvonne's puzzlement.

'Lemme go! Lemme go!' Lily cried, kicking and screaming as Sirius pulled her from the doorframe she had clung on to.

'No! We want to snowball Petunia even more later, right? Get him up!' Sirius said, pushing Lily to James' bed. Yvonne watched on in interest.

'I promise that I'll get you a whole jar of cookies for yourself. I just got two from an old friend,' Yvonne said. She'd do _anything_ to get James up early for Christmas.

'Give me that camera!!' Lily said, digging straight into Remus' pocket before pulling a pocket-sized camera from it.

'Okay, done?' Remus said with a sigh.

'Not really. I want some pies; blueberry, mind. Oh, and get me a basin full of water.'

They got her the things.

'What would you want these for?' Sirius asked curiously. He understand the pies – Lily is really fond of them – but the basin of water? Why on earth would she need that?

Lily took a deep breath before pecking James quickly on his cheeks. Hurriedly, she ran to the basin of water and washed her lips hard with soap and brushed her teeth once more with her magicked toothbrush and toothpaste.

Yvonne watched in amazement as James stirred blurrily from his bed.

'Hi mom. I want some lunch please?' James said blearily, rubbing his eyes.

'Lunch? James, it's eight thirty!' Yvonne screamed.

'It is? Then I might as well go back to bed or maybe gobble some dinner first,' James yawned.

'Dinner? James, look outside!!! It's morning! The sun has risen! And go back to bed? Get up this instance!' Yvonne screamed again.

'Why's Lily hanging herself for the third time?' James asked.

'Same reason as today's date,' Sirius said.

'It's christmas eve?'

'Idiot, what went into your mind every Christmas?' Remus asked.

'Uh, flobberworms?'

'No wonder you're as woolly as them,' Yvonne muttered. 'Up, up, up!!'

'James, you awake yet?' Edward asked, turning the doorknob. 'Wow! First time in history! Get a camera!'

'Hi dad. What's in history? And why camera?' James asked. Then a snap came, just as Romulus' face peeped in.

'Hey James! Woke up in time for christmas, didn't you?' William greeted.

'Oh, so?'

'Lily, what're you doing?' Orion asked.

'I'm hanging myself. This is the THIRD time I had to do this!!' Lily wailed loudly.

'Okay, calm down, calm down,' Anne said slowly.

'What? Calm? How can I ever??'

'What happened?' Rose asked, waltzing into the room.

'Your daughter's HANGING HERSELF? Lily, get down!' Melissa demanded.

'Hey! I'd done this thrice and I think I'll succeed this time!' Lily retorted.

'Lily! _Trespassta!_' Gram called, instantly aiming her wand at Lily. Lily fell down with a bump.

'Yeow!! Gram!!!'

'Shut it up, Lily. Aunt Yvonne, may I please have a cake?' Petunia said.

'Uh, I baked it without magic,' Yvonne said cautiously.

'All the better,' Petunia replied, running off to get a piece.

'Think she'll live, mom?' James asked. Yvonne is now chewing her nails.

'I vote she won't and any time now, a scream will-' Lily was cut off by a piercing scream and a really loud thud. '-ensue. Too late.' All the adults went to make sure Petunia was alright.

'Um, what did she put in there?' Sirius asked.

'Mom baked some weird jelly-wig-worm in there. Remember those we caught last year? We put it in the baking powder box,' James said.

'Worst luck. I bet your mom used that box of baking powder,' Remus said.

'You got it right. She mixed two boxes in.'

'And she didn't even see them?' Lily asked in a you're-ridiculous tone.

'Bingo.'

'Hey, I have a new idea with snowballs!' Sirius said gleefully.

'Oh, what? They're snowballs, and there doesn't seem to be a way to change them, like pranks stuff,' Remus said.

'Just say it,' Lily said.

'All ears here,' James said.

Sirius cleared his throat before pulling out a scrawly diagram. It shows a white snowball. An _ordinary_ snowball. And the picture next to it shows exactly the same snowball, no difference from the one before. Everyone looked at it. _This_ is Sirius' discovery?

'Alright, wipe that ridiculous look outta your faces! This is my plan!!' Sirius instructed. 'Look, see this snowball? Yes? Good. And this one next to it?'

'Are we blind?' Remus asked, rolling his eyes.

'Okay, notice the difference?' Sirius asked.

'Is there even a difference?' James said, looking hard at the diagrams.

'They're both snowballs. Wait, I saw it!' Lily said happily.

'Good, so what is it?' Sirius inquired.

'One is bigger than the other. It's a little crooked, too.'

'Not that!! The second one!! It contains a stone!! A really, really hard stone!!!'

'And your point is?'

'We hide a stone in each snowball we snowballed Petunia with and she'll get cuts and bruises instead of just cold, wet snow!!! See? Isn't it brilliant?' Sirius said, marveling his own head.

'You know, if your ego gets any bigger, I think twenty Hogwarts school wouldn't even fit in,' Remus said.

'Are you my friend?' Sirius said, looking hurt at Remus' words.

'No. I'm your best friend and I can comment you however I like,' Remus replied casually.

'Oh good! Petunia's awake!' Yvonne's voice came up from below. 'I'm so sorry, dear, to not have warned you about putting-'

'It's okay, Aunt Yvonne. It's not your fault. But judging by the laughters above, I bet Lily knew and never told it to me,' Petunia's replied came.

Lily looked furious. 'What?! You stupid sister – uh, step-sister since she's adopted – how dare you accuse me? Why don't you look out for yourself? I bet those worms were sticking out of that cake!'

'You're right. They _are_ sticking outta the cake,' James muttered.

The image of the cake with worms sticking out of them sent shivers to Sirius' spines. He shuddered a little.

'Why, Si? Worried to not be able to eat?' Remus asked teasingly.

'That's what I'm afraid of. The image of it sent shivers already. Imagine the real thing…' Sirius groaned.

'I'm going outside for snowballs,' Lily announced, running to the ladder placed on James' windowsil.

'And Petunia gave me the freaks,' James added before rushing after her.

'Go?' Sirius asked. Without a word, Remus pushed him down the ladder, sending the latter to clutter at the ladder steps before falling on the snow with a loud bump.

'Is there a need to push?' Sirius called.

'Yes. I was hoping that it'll help remove the bad image of cake with worms in your head!'

'Thanks. But your intention turned out bad. I have an even worst image now…'

To cut off the boring-est of most part, here's a short account on what happened: They _did_ snowball Petunia with the stone-filled snowballs. The girl ended up going to the hospital due to nose-bleed, bruises and cuts all over her. The Marauders were given lectures for hurting Petunia badly and were sent back on the Hogwarts Express that very day.

'I can't believe it! We got sent back on CHRISTMAS day?' Lily asked in a disbelief voice.

'This must be a record! We were home only for a week or two and we got sent back as soon as Christmas' at our doorstep! What happened?' James groaned.

'The presents! At least we brought them with us,' Sirius said, gloomily patting a huge bundle of presents.

'We hadn't even had a bite in that huge Christmas cake! And believe me, mom got it really huge!!' Remus moaned.

The Marauders sighed in dismay, disappointment and sadness. This wasn't quite the Christmas you'd like to celebrate with.

'Today's not our day I guess. I mean, what harm can it come to by snowballing Petunia?' Sirius asked.

'We have stone in there? I must say, I conjured a diamond in mine… must've cut pretty deep,' Lily mused.

'I got two diamonds in mine. Trust me, I made it really hard and really sharp,' James said.

'I only have a pebble!' Remus complained.

The four sighed again, just as Hogwarts Express pulled to a stop outside the Hogsmeade station. They grabbed their bags, presents, owls and their homework load which are finished, thanks to Lily's help, and climbed into the horseless carriage.

'Jingle bells, this season smells,' Sirius hummed sadly to himself, looking out of the window.

'The grass is tall and leaves won't fall,' Lily sang.

'Trouble comes and we're kicked off, into a dark and smelly cove,' James sang.

'Hey, stop those ridiculous made-up lyrics! They're funny and I don't feel like laughing!' Remus said.

They burst into peals of laughter after that. They hop off the carriage and marched, nose high, into the Hogwarts castle. Who cares anyway? This is one record worth keeping! At least, to the Marauders, it is.

'You're back? What day is today?' Terrykinns asked as he and Catherine were ice-skating – rather unskillfully – in the huge pond.

'Christmas. No, you are _not_ dreaming, Terry,' Lily assured.

'What? How d'you know what I'm thinking?'

'Aren't I smart?'

'Whatever. How do you run on this thing again?'

'Not run, _skate_. You _skate_, not _run_!' James said.

'Okay, okay. So how?'

'Like this,' Sirius said, giving him a push. Terrykinns skated all the way, stumbling a little in the middle, to the other side of the lake. The boy was screaming with fright and Catherine was giggling too hard to help him up. Terrykinns ended up upside down, banging hard onto a nearby fir tree trunk.

'Ciao! We go now!' Remus said. They waved and went up the castle steps with their bags.

'Goodness! Why are you here?' McGonagall said in shock. The Marauders, however, were laughing too hard to answer her. Remus got out his new camera before snapping a photo of the teacher. Anyway, how many times will you see McGonagall dressed in santa-like clothings along with a cap? Only once in a blue moon.

**

'So that's why you're here?' Tally asked Lily, who was explaining why she's here when she is supposed to be back at home with her family.

'But I never! Who ever hurts her sister? With stones – or diamonds, in James and your case?' Sita asked in surprise.

'Hey, she's _not_ my sister! She's my step-sister. Adopted. And just like Cinderella, step-sisters are _mean_. They aren't gonna be nice and goody to you,' Lily said, as if the fact was known well to four year olds, which, maybe is.

'Well, my step-sister is,' Pertsy began slowly. 'She has a nasty temper though.'

'See?' Lily said triumphantly.

'We see everything. Okay, now you're here, mind helping us with Divination? I still can't get the hang of that crystal ball…' Tally said, pulling out the glass orb.

'I still say it's very stupid,' Nina sniffed. 'Still, I have to do this Arithmancy. You can't help me there, can you, Lily?'

'I don't know. Mom wants me to take that, so she taught me some before-hand. Yes, I guess I can help a little,' Lily said slowly. 'Okay, bring this to Vector – was it her name? – and I'll come along. I'll tell you the answer right away!'

'How?'

'Let's see… not telling,' Lily said, poking her tongue out mischievously. She had planned to let Nina show the arithmancy professor the work, and just like most professors, they'll think of the answer while trying to teach you. Lily planned to use that as an advantage to help Nina _and_ to add something to her still-growing knowledge. Any new information might be useful against Voldemort, especially when you're only thirteen and helpless.

Wait. We aren't all that helpless. We have some powers, Lily said, hitting her head mentally.

'How about some chips?' Sita offered, getting up.

'Oh goody! I'd like some. The tea-lady didn't turn up in the train ride. Bet she's taking a holiday,' Lily said, absent-mindedly making a large plate of chips before the watching girls. She took one piece and bit into it as the remaining four watched on amazed.

'Oh, it's good!' Lily said cheerfully. 'Dig in!'

'Uh, it just appeared out of nowhere!' Pertsy stammered.

'It's not even the Summoning Charm I saw Elley used!' Tally stuttered.

'Oh, it's nothing. It's perfectly un-poison, so don't worry,' Lily said, turning a little red. How was she to remember that she had vowed to never let her Psychic powers to be known? Her powers as a Seer had leaked out, but she must keep her other one a perfect secret.

The girls daren't move.

'Hey, you trust me or not? Hi boys!' Lily said. The girls looked confuse at the last sentence.

Just then, the door burst open, and three figures in a familiarly cladded space clothes stood at the door, a gun in hand each. The taller one was twirling it around his fingers skillfully and the other two were shooting all over the room, sending colored smokes everywhere.

'You!!!' the four girls shouted in unison.

'Nope, it's us!' Lily said, cladding herself in the same clothings before blasting everything. With a wave of wand, Lily had everyone dressed exactly that way.

'C'mon! We'll play elsewhere! Dan and Thomas are still below. Won't come up,' James said.

The girls wouldn't budge.

'Liven up!! We have to live life to it's fullest, so enjoy!' Remus coaxed. With that, everyone rushed down, shooting almost everything.

'Cool! This is fun!' Tally said.

'Isn't it? Our sorta game when we're bored,' Sirius grinned.

'Hey guys! How about going after Mrs Norris?' Lily suggested, producing a pellet from her robes.

'_Pellet green, pellet pink;_

_turn Mrs Norris into an awful green!_'

'Sorry?' Thomas breathed.

'Here she comes!!!' Lily said, dropping the pellet on the floor. The cat, quickly spotting food on the floor, rushed up to it before eating it straight. Mrs Norris turned into a really sick yellow-green at the very moment. Tally felt like throwing up at the color, but Dan managed to hit her hard, making her swallow everything in.

'Eugh!'

'Yuck!'

'You're still having that?' Sirius asked.

'It's my invention! If I don't, who will?' Lily argued.

'It looked disgusting,' Nina said.

'Well, how about we try it on a teacher? Say, the Insect?' Lily said, grinning evilly.

'What? It worked for humans?' James asked.

'Not before. I did some changes with Gram's help.'

'What insect?' Sita, Pertsy and Nina asked. Obviously, they hadn't known much of Sybil Trelawney, how much Lily hate her and how the professor looked like an overlarge insect.

'Divination Insect,' Remus said.

'What?' the trio said again.

'Divination Idiot might help?' James said helpfully.

'What?'

'The stupid Divination professor,' Sirius said at last. 'I'll bang her today!' He shot a laser beam from his gun, burning a hole in the ceiling. Six of them gulped, but the remaining three simply waved it off as something normal.

'Well, well, I don't think this is holiday costume, is it not?' Dumbledore's voice said from behind.

'Hello Dumbledore! No, seriously, don't ask why,' Lily said.

'What's up?' James said.

'Sorry 'bout that hole,' Sirius said sheepishly.

'Hi!' Remus said shortly.

The others were tongue-tied. Here is the headmaster, one of the best wizards of the wizarding community, and they are dressing in this ridiculous clothings, armed with a laser gun?

'Ask what, Lily? And nothing's up, James. It's really boring without you mischief-makers. The hole? That'll be fixed easily by Filch, so there's no problem. Hello Remus,' Dumbledore said.

'You know what you'll ask. First, why would we wanna bang Trelawney. And then why are we here? After that, what's with this weird costumes? And lastly, what about joining the feast later,' Lily said promptly.

'We'll join the feast,' Sirius said hopefully. 'You'll let us, won't you?'

'Lily, I must say that you're improving really well in your Divination. True, I will ask these questions in about a minute or two. Very well, since you'd asked me to not to ask, I shall leave it a mystery to myself. Now, why aren't you talking?' Dumbledore said, referring to the mute third-years.

'Can you send a word to the kitchens? You can list whatever food you want for the feast,' Dumbledore said, smiling at the Marauders. This, of course, brightened Sirius' face as soon as possible. He glowed so brightly that Tally suspected that a bulb must've been placed there.

'Aye aye, captain!' James grinned, saluting to him.

'Then march!'

'One, two, one, two,' Remus grinned. The Marauders were doing a really uncoordinated march just for the fun of it.

'Properly.'

'Oh, I hate marching! Like we hadn't done enough in those sport's days,' James groaned.

'Don't ask. We're not really good atheletes,' Lily muttered.

'She can run though,' Sirius said, pointing to Lily.

'Like a wind,' Remus said, nodding his agreement.

'Well, please remember to place an order then,' Dumbledore laughed, leaving them. He started singing carols loudly without a dignity in mind.

'When food's concern, Sirius will remember,' Lily called out to him. The old wizard just chuckled and went on singing.

'Is he okay in head?' Sita asked worriedly.

'Oh, he's fine, actually,' Remus said.

'If he's fine to you, it's a definitely no to us. Your head goes anti-clockwise,' Nina said.

'Does the head ever goes clockwise? Hmm… that's a question to ponder at, Lily!' James said.

'I'll get the answer by tomorrow,' Lily promised.

'What? And miss all the fun by sitting in the library?' Thomas asked in shock.

'Nah! I can give the answer now if you want.'

'No need. We already know,' Pertsy said dryly.

'Oh, what is it?'

'You are all weird.'

AN: Is this long? I most certainly hope so. Anyway, I might be writing really slow after this L the reasons are hard. 1) I have to go for extra tuition since I'm facing major exam. I already have one and it's enough to drive me nuts. 2) I'm facing a major exam this year [2001]. I get less time, but I'll manage in weekends. 3) My dreams are turning really weird [yes, I get half my ideas from dreams], so you have to suffer more :) wait. That's not a reason!!! Never mind. 4) piano exam. Another load to my already huge one. 5) I go morning school from this year on. Not much time. 

Reasons enough? So you'll all get more rest and I go school tomorrow L very sad… anyway, Happy New Year and I hope your life's better off than mine! I'll still write, so don't kill me yet!! I'm only a teenager and don't wanna die just now. However I hate my studies, I still value my life!

Oh, I was thinking, would you mind if I use the 'You Started It!' characters in my new short stories? I like them!!! Especially little Kioki!!! You won't mind, right?


	5. April's Fool

AN: Aw… April seems some time away, but I'm not gonna care!! Anyhow, I seem to be doing loads of seasons or celebrations these days, don't you think so? Halloween, x'mas, and now April Fool. What is this world coming to? I don't know o_o I think I'll make this year quite short, since my schedule's crammed and this year had really, really long chapters. I mean, isn't 100 over KB long? And you'll get bored if I keep you in one year for long with boring, rambling chapters.

How did I write these boring stories up to 100KB? I am clueless myself… anyone to help?

I'll try posting weekly, that is, if time permits ^^ I'd love to write more. Blame whatever I blamed in later's AN. And yes, the school's mean, tuitions, exams blablabla… I hate them all!!! And you'll die without my story? I think that's the first *sob* I'm so touched! And put Remus on me? As werewolf? Cool! I wouldn't miss anything, since my friends seem to hate me, so I shan't miss anything.

L/J… let's see… I think it's somewhere at Year Four. Yep! I had the first part all planned, but I need to think about the number of chapters this year :P

What's a 'muy bonito-a'? and I'm THANKFUL that you don't want little Pettigrew as the fifth Marauder!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: La di dum ~ everything's mine!!!!! Mine, mine, mine!!!!! … Actually, it's opposite.

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 5: April's Fool!**

A week after Christmas, the Marauders received a Howler concerning Petunia's being. Of course, just as they being the Marauders' parents, they sent a white paper-like howler to the four teenagers. Remus gulped, throwing the letter open.

'_How dare you snowball Petunia with stones!!!! Don't you know that she can be having a concussion? Worst, go into a coma? And what is it there were DIAMONDS among the snow? Don't tell me you planted those in there?'_

'Why else are they there?' James muttered, still crouching under the High Tables.

'_Get out of those High Tables!!!!!!!! And I mean now!!!!!!'_

'She must show it, musn't she?' Lily asked, rolling her eyes at her mother's voice.

'_And what disgrace! We had to send you home on CHRISTMAS!_'

'If you don't, you wouldn't be disgraced. Why did you?' Sirius said, pushing more cotton into his ears.

'_And your work isn't done yet! I bet those professors are really mad by now!!!!_'

'You want them to celebrate?' Remus said. The last word came with all their parents and Gram shouting;

'_GROW UP!!!!!!!!_'

'Hey!' the four Marauders cried at the same time. 'You're sounding like Tally and Dan!!!'

The Howler didn't reply. It just burst into a huge flames, scaring half the school (which are only a dozen students left and the professors _not_ included) for they fear the fire burning the whole castle down. James scoffed at that before brushing the soots up.

'Old trick,' he muttered. Lily held out a plastic bag and he poured the remainders of the Howlers into it.

'Show-offs,' Sirius added.

'They lectured already,' Remus said with a fake sniff.

'They want everyone to know,' Lily concluded, turning the plastic into air, since burning will cause toxic and suffocate the whole school. 'May we help you?'

Hurriedly, everyone turned back, interested in their food, some muttering things to another.

'I hate these students. All gossips and nothing else,' Sirius scowled at his cereal, which looked innocently back at him, wondering what on earth had it done to cause him scowl at it for no reason at all.

'I think your cereal's wondering why're you scowling at it,' Remus said teasingly.

'Since when can you tell?' Sirius snapped.

'Hey, cool it! We'll get Filch later, so eat up!' James said, pushing his bowl to Sirius. The Howler had put him off-food. It almost seemed like they had added a curse on it on purpose, since the Marauders _were_ at their growing stage now and needed more food than they usually did.

'I'm not all that hungry either. I bet they used a curse on that Howler,' Remus groaned, pushing his bowl away.

'Ditto. They _did_ put a curse on it. No counter, don't ask,' Lily said, slumping down on the table.

'I feel only like eating one bowl,' Sirius moaned.

'That's good enough!' the other three said, envying him.

'But I need five!'

'Live with it. They used that curse and I can't remember a counter if there's one.'

'I bet they add a memory charm…'

'I can't help there! It's uncurable!'

'Not even a cure?'

'Not even a single one.'

'Argh!!!!'

'I'm not in despair? You're not the only one!'

'Yeah, we all need our food!'

'Then think of a counter charm!'

'How can I? There's none!'

'How would you know? Maybe there is!'

'Hey, it's not even in the book!'

'Books aren't everything.'

'I know, that's why! We need serious help here if we wanna eat.'

'I feel a lump in my throat…'

'I feel sick, I think.'

'I need food…'

'Their tricks and pranks – even if it isn't – I hate them!'

'They need to get outta that habit. They're adults!'

'Zonko's manager's an adult…'

'Oh yeah. But does he play tricks?'

James hit the goblet with his wand and a picture swirled into view, showing an old wizard in pale lavender robes, carefully planting a mouse-trap on a secretary chair. Soon after, a young witch in swirling green robes walked in briskly, files in hand. She sat on the chair and yelped in pain. Remus looked in disbelief.

'See?'

'Okay, I believe it now…'

'Weird as it may seem, it's true.'

'I said I believe it!'

'Okay. Who's in favour on using it – that wonderful prank our Zonko's manager just did – on Minnie?'

'ME!!!!'

**

Tally sat up in bed, cackling silently to herself. She was really ready this time, and she will_ never_ let Lily lived through this, after all she had down in the previous two years. The pranks, jokes, stories and all that Lily and the Marauders had played; she is going to get back at them at the very same date it had been done on. First April.

Tally slipped her hand under her pillow to look for the thing she had hidden in there the night before. She had got it from their last visit in Hogsmeade, and Zonko's had promised that it will work perfectly well; no flaws.

The blonde's face turned blue suddenly, an awful color to go with blonde hair. She bit her lip hard. Tally pulled out her hand and came face to face with a small crab with menacing pincers. 

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Tally screamed, shaking the whole castle.

Immediately, her curtains were drawed open and four girls stood outside her bed. One of them, a redhead, is grinning broadly. Another was holding out her wand and the last two held out their boots and looked ready to brandish anyone, maybe even Voldemort

'What happened, Tally?' Pertsy asked, holding her wand before her before looking around for the murderer or whatever is it that made Tally screamed so loudly.

Mutely, Tally held out her hand. The mini crab was still dangling on her finger, which is turning purple-blue without any blood flowing to that finger. Pertsy gave a sigh before waving her wand. The crab fell off, petrified.

'Lily! Why in Merlin's name are you doing that?' Tally scolded, once gaining back her use of voice.

'April's fool, Tally!' Lily greeted cheerfully before bouncing out of the room, fully dressed.

'I _hate_ April's fools day!!! Why must I always be the fool! That's so unfair!!' Tally wailed.

'Hey, it's not like you are the only one,' Sita said quietly, pointing at her bed. Large holes were showing out and a few Grub-Winkies were eating more of the curtain.

'Same here,' Nina said, holding out her blankets, which were infested with spiders. Nina looked white.

'Hah! She didn't get me! I'm too careful!' Pertsy announced proudly, laughing maniacally at her success of Lily not being able to get her for the day.

'Um, Pertsy?' Tally started, trying to not laugh.

'What?'

'Have you looked into the mirror?' Sita asked.

'I just woke up, thanks to Tally's scream.'

'I suggest you look at one now,' Nina stammered.

Pertsy turned to a nearby mirror before staring at her reflection.

'Dear, dear, what made you turn out this way? You look like a circus clown!' the mirror commented in shock.

Indeed, Pertsy _did _look like a clown. Lily had powdered her face white, gave her an abnormally large red nose and made lines near her eyes. Her cheeks were painted bright red and instead of her pink nightgown, she is wearing a clown suit (the one with large spots) and a matching hat. Shoes much too big for her were fitted neatly into her feet.

Pertsy screamed.

'Looks like she'd found out,' Lily grinned to the boys at the Gryffindor's table.

'Found out? What did you do to her?' James asked, eating some bacons.

'I made her into a clown.'

'Guess what we did to Dan and Thomas?' Sirius grinned.

'Idiot, it isn't much! The real thing comes later!' Remus said, hitting Sirius so hard that his hat fell off.

'Ow!'

'What did you do?' Lily asked curiously.

'Oh, we gave them scorpians,' James said.

'You should hear them yell.'

'And their noses! It's almost as big as Snape's!'

'What's for later?'

'Let's see… oh, we have an appointment with Snape. We'll get those Bouncing Powder later. We'll turn McGonagall into a what? Squirrel? Okay, James can do that. Boggarts for Filch – easily fixed – and then a few poisonous mice for Mrs Norris – greedy cat. Should be thankful,' Lily said, writing down into a parchment. She added a couple more victims and some random pranks and tricks before the Hall's doors burst open.

'Lily Evans! Put me back to normal!!!' Pertsy stomped in, still in her clown suit, clown make-up and clown hat.

'Just what are you doing in that?' McGonagall asked, amazed. 'Detention! See me tonight at eight, in the office!'

'But Professor-'

'No buts, or I'll turn you into a goat if you but anymore.'

Pertsy glared sulkily at her before heading to where the Marauders were feasting on their breakfast. Lily was laughing and dropping on the floor with an uncurable fits of giggles, James was grinning very broadly (it took up his whole face), Sirius joined Lily and Remus on the floor, rolling and rolling with laughter.

'Put me back!!!!!'

Lily held out a packet of powder before laughing even harder.

'Should I take it?' Pertsy asked.

'Knowing Lily, maybe,' Tally said cautiously. Pertsy gulped, took a deep breath and poured the packet of powder over her head. This time, not only the Marauders were rolling helplessly on the floor. The whole school was, even the Slytherins. The Hall roared with laughter.

Pertsy wondered what was wrong, to make everyone laugh that loud. She began to try and question Tally. Tally looked quite tall all of a sudden and Pertsy felt green…

'Pertsy, you're an iguana!' Sita pointed out in despair. 'A pink one with red polka dots!'

I'm a what?

'Oh, Pertsy, for goodness sake get a mirror!!' Nina said, thrushing a mirror into her hands. Wait. It's _not_ hands. Maybe it's a claw? Or was it webbed leg? Pertsy had no idea, but when she saw herself, she fainted with fright.

'Oh, good job, Lily!!! Good job!!' James congratulated, patting her hard. Lily just laughed even harder.

'Happy April Fool, Pertsy!!!' Lily called as the three third-year Gryffindors carried the unconcious iguana out.

**

The Marauders were on their way to North Tower for their Divination class, Tally, Dan and Thomas running after them. The four were skipping happily on their way up, and the three third-years running after them were seriously wondering about their sanity. Why was it that when they usually slump up to the tower, and today, they were practicalled jumping with happiness all the way?

Lily popped her head up from the trap door, grinning at the glittering insect at the other end of the room. James' came soon after, followed by Remus' and Sirius', hopping and cartwheeling into the room. Everyone laughed, but Anna merely sniffed at that.

'You're here to study,' Anna said sniffily.

'Well, in case you're in a wrong mood, we studied already,' Remus said.

'Oh, unless you forgot, Divination is not one subject to study!' Lily said as all the Marauders burst out laughing for no reason at all.

'What sort of sugar did you eat this morning? Brown? White? Black?' Tally asked.

'Maybe you're sick?' Dan suggested.

'Nope,' Thomas said, checking their temperature.

'Well, "Divination is a fine world of art, beauty and glory",' Anna said snappily.

'Oh no! Never in a million years!' Lily said, shaking it off.

'You gabbled that out of the book, didn't you?' James said, shaking his head.

'No can do,' Sirius said solemnly.

'Huh?' Remus said. Anna was at her wits' end.

'Wait, you forgot a little word; it's "Divination is a fine world of art, _mystic fog_, beauty and glory". Wrong word there,' Lily said, correcting her. If possible, Anna was angrier than ever.

'Hey, you should copy this; "Dear, you'd chosen Divination, the hardest of all magic". Well I said that History of Magic is the hardest! You need a hard time keeping awake in Binns' lecturing drones,' James said, sending everyone, including the Slytherins, into fits of laughter.

'And I quote Sybil Trelawney, "Dear, dear! You have the Grim!! The Grim, dear! Oh, such poor fate to drop over such a young and sober soul sob" unquote,' Sirius said, doing a little scene in the middle of the classroom. Everyone burst into peals of laughter and Anna just looked furious.

'Studies should _not _be played like that,' Anna said haughtily.

'Um, where's Professor Trelawney?' Gereld, one of Anna's fellow Ravenclaw, asked, looking around for her.

'That insect? She's not coming today,' Remus said, grinning broadly.

'How come?' Tally asked curiously.

'Happy April Fool, Sybil!!!' Lily exclaimed, proudly brandishing a jar from James' bag.

'What? Where's she?' Dan asked, looking around.

'Right in this attic,' James replied. This is _not_ a classroom, so it's an attic.

'Sorry? Come again?' Thomas said.

'Let's see… last night – twelve midnight, to be exact – we found her turning into a dragonfly under a moonbeam,' Sirius grinned.

Shocked, half the class peered into the jar Lily was holding. True enough, a dragonfly – cladded with a few mini-rings and silks – sat in there, looking absolutely horrified at what is being happened around her. She – the Trelawney dragonfly – was crowded by her third-year students. How is it that she couldn't "see" this coming?

'You're probably wondering why she didn't escape earlier or when is she turning back,' Lily said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

They nodded eagerly.

'The reason she didn't escape earlier is because Lily used her p-' Sirius' mouth was clamped tightly shut by Remus, whom, sensing his friend breaking Lily's secret, was quick enough to react.

'Sorry?'

'I stun her,' Remus answered shortly. Lily had used her psychic powers to cause havoc in Trelawney's head, acquired a newly-learnt skill and James had frightened the woman badly when they wanted to play their April's Fool trick on her. Sirius, getting a new idea, transfigured the Divination teacher into a dragonfly so they wouldn't have to take Divination the very next day.

'And she'll turn back into human tonight, midnight,' James concluded the last question. Everyone cheered.

Anna looked at them with displeasure and anger. Firstly, they had stolen all her limelight in each an every class they took. She _was_ the smartest of all the Ravenclaws, even for her age, but all four Marauders, out of talent or not (she suspected talent, since they didn't even touch a book), beat her and her fellow Ravenclaw friend flat with their rich knowledge and their ways of holding tight to a phrase "All work and no play makes whomever a dull boy and whomever a dull girl." She don't know what the name is, but who cares?

Second, Trelawney had first chose _her _as the gifted one. After Dumbledore's visit in their second week, Anna lost all of the light from her friends. Now Lily was the gifted one – a very powerful one, at that – and half the school went to her for help.

Thirdly, they were making fun of her. 

Fourth, her family had been Ravenclaws ever since one could imagine, and all were the cleverest of their age and wisdom beyond words could describe. Ravenclaw's downfall in her year had been most unpleasant and her brothers and sisters were shunning her far. She had disgraced the Hopkins in her year and had received much scoldings and lectures in the holidays.

Fifth; she _knew_ she had a good head and she knew how to use it well. How is it that one that never even touches a book, nor listen to the professor's talking, nor pay much for the price of studying gets to beat her, Anna Hopkins?

Anna glared sulkily at them with hatred. She hate them. For stealing her limelight, for taking her much obtained attention, for being smarter than her without even studying. Most of all, she hated them for their cleverness.

Lily, sensing Anna's thoughts with a sharp prick, turned to the girl, who was reading hard at her Arithmancy book. Snape loathed them, but that was fun since he's a Slytherin and they're Gryffindors, so it's house vs house, a whole load of fun. But in Anna's case, she meant it really hard. So hard that it'll stab into a soul. Lily shivered.

'What? Cold?' James asked.

'No. Anna,' Lily said. 'What're we gonna do for Rivers? Any ideas?'

'Let's see… we could fool her. You know, bring her a computer and say it's a super-latest muggle work sent from our parents. We can – I mean, Remus can since he's better at electronics – change some cables and all. When she tried operating it with magic – poof! She'll be charcoal!' Sirius grinned, waltzing over.

'That's a good one!' Remus said, running over to them. 'I'm bored, by the way. We are spending two hours here like this? Fifteen minutes hadn't even passed!!!'

Lily pulled out her crystal ball from her bag.

'I got a new one. Mom just sent me one, saying that one that costs only five sickles isn't worth much to tell a long future. She should've sent it earlier,' Lily said to them, holding the new orb proudly. It was fairly small, pocket-size but it emitted a radiant light the old one didn't. It shined and gleamed and sparkle so brightly that the class was now crowding over Lily, Anna included. Snape, however, was suffering in the Infirmary because his friend had accidentally placed a Jelly-Legs at him.

'Wow,' Tally managed to say.

'Lovely, isn't it? Mom says it's her old one. Should've given it to me when I was training so I won't have that lines under my eyes to say that I've been straining them,' Lily said.

'So what're you gonna do with it?' Dan asked.

'She'll read into it, just for fun, to see what will happen to her,' James said.

'She told us ours. And some random people. Pretty interesting,' Sirius commented.

'Hey Lily! Maybe you can read mine?' Tally said.

'Sure, why not? I don't need this stupid orb, actually. It's ridiculous and I look so much more of a fortune teller,' Lily said.

'You are a fortune teller,' Remus said, and the Marauders burst with laughter again. This time, everyone was _really_ wondering their sanity. Not Anna, of course. She'd rather them go crazy.

'Sorry Anna, we're never going to go crazy. None of us. Not when we are sent to Azkaban,' Lily flashed angrily at her. Anna just snorted.

'We'll see how you last, then, Evans,' Anna said.

'Whatever,' Lily muttered, looking into the orb. Suddenly, she gave a gasped of delight and dropped into laughters, frightening everyone.

'What?' James asked.

'Oh, I couldn't believe it!! Hey, are you playing an April Fool trick on me?' Lily asked to crystal ball. To everyone's surpise, fright and some, delight, the ball turned deep blue.

'Thank you,' Sirius said. 'We can't have Lily tickled to death everytime she looks into you today.'

'What?' Tally asked blankly. Lily burst out laughing all over again.

'The orb says it wasn't,' Remus answered simply. Suddenly, Lily's laughing voice can be heard not only by ears, but also by mind, connecting to all the Marauders. Remus heard Sirius scowling hard at Lily, whose mind is still laughing.

_What's up, Lily? _Remus asked.

_Oh, it's so funny!!!_ Lily laughed again.

_Tell already!_ James demanded.

_I never thought they'd really get on!!!_

_What?_ Sirius' confused mind said.

_T- T-_

Lily never finished. She broke down into fits of laughter and cut off the mind-link that very instant.

'Tell!!' James demanded.

'Tell what?' Dan asked.

Lily just broke into fits of giggles this time.

'She's losing her sanity,' Anna said hopefully. Lily suddenly straightened out and a number ofsharp daggers were seen flying towards the brunette, pinning her hard and high onto the classroom – ahem, sorry, attic – wall.

'_Never_ insult me,' Lily said warningly.

'Need help, Anna?' Gereld asked.

'What does it look like?' Anna said, slumping down. She stood up straight again, for fear tearing her robes.

Gereld tried pulling out a dagger which is pinning the brunette's left shoe sharply, but failed utterly. It was thrown too deep into the wall. Gereld shook her head sadly.

'It's too deep, Anna. I can't get it out.'

Anna just sighed.

'Y'know, you shouldn't insult any of us,' Remus said, walking past her. He stopped before her.

'Oh, why shouldn't I, Death Eaters?' Anna said sourly.

'If Lily is here, she'll make sure a chinese sword will be placed under your throat,' Sirius warned.

'And we're not Death Eaters,' James added.

'Lily has a temper, and you wouldn't want to know it at all. Trust me,' Remus said.

'Who cares? All redhead idiots all have tempers,' Anna said sharply.

'You take that back, Anna Hopkins. I don't enjoy my red hair very much,' Lily said coldly, appearing suddenly.

'I very well will not!' Anna answered haughtily.

'Very well. You'll stay that way,' Lily said, drawing suddenly a chinese sword out of nowhere. Anna gulped. What is she, a magician? And was she really having that put under her throat.

Remus shook his head. 'Told you not to mess with her temper.'

'Ciao!' James and Sirius said, turning to handle the audiences. 'Alright! Five knuts!' Sirius called.

Anna waited for the worst as Lily turned to throw the sword. It didn't come, since Lily suddenly broke down into peals of shrill laughters. Anna opened her eyes slowly, only to see a mid-floating Lily, laughing hard at her.

'What?'

'You really thought I'd get you, didn't you?' Lily said, floating a little.

'Y- y- you're floating! Aaah!!!!!' Anna screamed, drawing attentions from all the audiences below, who, were being shooed from James, Sirius and Remus. True enough, Lily was floating a little as she reached out to pull a dagger from Anna's sleeves. It came off easily, much to the girl's amazement.

'But Gereld couldn't even pull it out! And she's one of the strongest!' Anna yelped.

'Shut up. If you want to get down, you have to keep calm. Else,' Lily said, holding the dagger warningly.

'Lily, come down! It's too dangerous!' James said. Lily sighed before floating down gently. Her another newly obtained psychic power, which will make you float up into the air. She is determined to _not _let her mother know how well she is progressing in both Psychic and Seer parts.

'Hey!! Get me down!!!' Anna screamed. Gereld went over to try and pull a dagger, standing on a table to reach her sleeve. However, even with Anna's help, it just wouldn't budge at all. Remus nudged Lily and she shot a glance at Anna which freezed her bones sharply. Suddenly, Lily was holding five daggers and Anna was free. Both she and Gereld tumbled down clumsily.

'Happy April Fool, Anna!' Sirius wished before they bounced out of the class and into their Potions' dungeon, just as the bell rang. This year was potions with the Ravenclaws, much to Anna's resentment. She mentally added to her list. Number six; I hate Lily Evans for pinning me to that wall! And she can float without any wand!! It's black! Dark arts! I'll hate her to the world's end.

The four sat in their seats, patiently waiting for Professor Halley to march in. The class was filling up, and all the Gryffindors were crowding over the Marauders with amazement at what happened during Divination. News had gone all around like a flaming fire, but not one reached a teacher. No, not one. Some Ravenclaws find Anna too smart and dislike her for that, but others are plain angry with the Marauders. However, since the Marauders helped so much in annoying Slytherins – something the three houses were glad of – they let them go easily. The prefects didn't bother, but laughed silently to themselves about it, for a photo of Anna pinned by daggers had been duplicated and passed all around.

Anna was red with embarassment and anger.

Potions passed perfectly well, except for a few April Fool tricks. Dan tried one on Thomas, which ended up melting the boy's cauldron so badly that it was only a huge lump once it stopped dissolving. Dan had actually meant to add in a few spiders that will jump up, but it went straight into the potion and melted the cauldron. The floor was covered with sizzlingly orange liquid, melting almost everything all the way.

Anna tried her get back on Lily, which results in Anna herself getting the very trick she had tried on Lily; cucumber green hair with a few orange, brown and red stripes.

'Hah! You should've gotten a better trick than that!' Lily laughed, when Anna's charms was countered by the alert girl. Anna's shoulder-length of brown hair had turned into an awful green, orange, brown and red stripes. It certainly didn't clash well with her sandy brown hair, and Anna's freckles on her face was multiplied by ten.

'Put me back!!'

'I didn't do it to you, so I shan't bother.'

Another one of the tricks on the Potions class was when Halley tried to frigten Sita. Being the hysterics girl as she is, she screamed loudly, shattering the professor's glasses. After that, Sita began to sob and cry in upset.

'Looks like Halley's into April Fool, huh?' James whispered to Lily. The redhead nodded, and helped Remus counter a prank Gereld was trying to get on him without him noticing it.

'You sharpen your defenses and reflects already,' Sirius pointed out.

'Yep! I had to, since my um, whatever,' Lily said, catching Anna listening intently, clinging to each one of her words tightly.

'Can you stop eavesdropping?' Remus said in an exasperated voice. Anna, realizing that she was caught, turned away to throw in a few bat's wings into the potion.

'Stupid girl,' James muttered, stirring the potion swiftly.

'Brainless feather,' Sirius added, and he accidentally turned to fire bigger. 'Ow! Hot hot hot hot hot!'

'Idiot git,' Lily murmured, throwing in four lizard's intestines, referring to Anna, not Sirius.

'Stupid eavesdropper,' Remus concluded, pouring his potion into Anna's mouth, which he forced open. Soon, the girl was scowling and floating up high, inflating like a very huge balloon in the middle of the class. Halley looked pleased.

'Look! Mr Lupin had done it! Five points to Gryffindor!'

The Gryffindors cheered loudly and Remus burst with pride. For the first time – okay, not exactly the first – he had done his potion correctly and it worked. Anna and the Ravenclaws scowled at the noisy Gryffindors.

**

Transfiguration followed after the potions class. If potions was eventful, Transfiguration must have been more than eventful. Half the pranks and almost all of the jokes took places in the class. Probably it was because of McGonagall's absence that day. The professor had to go back home for a few family problems and Transfiguration was free. The replacement teacher was just a dreamer and couldn't care less of what the class did.

'I read this joke in a book, wanna hear it?' Sirius said eagerly to the class. The nine nodded eagerly. It goes like this:-

'Three sages were meditating from their house across the lake. After some time, one of the sage got up and announced, "I had forgotten to hang out our clothes. We will have no clothes to wear if I don't hang it now."

'With that, the sage walked to the lake. He walked across the lake, just like that, floating on the surface of the lake. He walked calmly to the other side of the lake, hung the three sages' clothes and walked back to their meditation spot, just by the same way.'

'What sorta joke is that?' Thomas asked, annoyed.

'Hey! I hadn't even finished! Let me finish! And Lily, if you wanna try, go ahead and lose the fun,' Sirius said.

'Don't worry, I won't,' Lily promised. Six of them wondered what on earth Sirius meant by that (they don't know about Lily's Psychic powers), but Sirius only nodded in approvement.

'Now, where was I already? Oh yeah, I remembered. Then they went on with their meditation. The second one got up soon after that and announced to the other two, "I had forgotten to stop the fire. If I don't go and stop it now, our food may be burnt to crisp until it is black and hard. The worst that may happen is that our house will be burnt down if we aren't careful."

'They excused him and he went to the house, just the same way the first one had done. He walked calmly across the huge lake, not rushingly. Just calmly and slowly, taking his own sweet time and once in a while, stood in the middle of the lake to let his eyes linger over the beautiful scenary. He then went into the house, stop the fire, and came back, exactly the same way. All this went unescaped by the third sage.'

'What happens now?' Dan asked.

'I said, let me finish!' Sirius said.

'You were lingering the time yourself. See, you were describing it so beautifully and all,' James said, stiffling a little laugh.

'Very unlike you,' Remus said gravely.

'Really?'

'Really. I don't think that's in the book anyway. They wouldn't let us wait,' Lily said.

'Get on! I'm hooked!' Pertsy urged.

'Okay okay. Now, the third sage was watching everything, right? When the second one came back, he said to the two, "I refuse to believe that you are much holier than I am, but as brothers, I trust you to not lie to me. Please tell me how to walk on the lake without support."

'The other two just stared blankly at him. The third sage said again, "If my meditation is not enough, I shall meditate more, but we had all three meditated together for long. It may be true that you are holier than I am, but I request teachings from my brothers."

'They still looked blankly at him, not understanding a word he said. Finally, he had given up that they will actually tell him how to walk across the deep lake, unsupported. He went the a bank and gingerly put a foot firmly into the green water, falling straight down. Spirits not dampened, he climbed out and tried again. And again, and again, and again.

'The first sage turned to the second sage and said gravely; "Brother, do you think that we should tell him where the stone steps are?"' Sirius finished, letting all the laughters he'd tried to contain throughout the last part.

'What? But the third sage asked them to tell him!' Tally said.

'But he said to tell him how to _walk on the water unsupportable_,' Lily laughed, tears rolling down her eyes.

The joke finally dawning to her, Tally laughed uncontrollably, rolling on the floor with all the rest of the third-years. The thing with seeing ten thirteen-year-olds laughing and rolling onto the floor may be quite awkward, but who cares? No one.

'CLASS!!!!'

Um, maybe there's someone who _does_ care. The ten laughing teenagers looked up, only to come face to face with a different person. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus gulped in deeply as their legs turned jelly. Who should be standing above them but Rose Evans and Yvonne Potter?

'Hi mom,' Lily and James both greeted weakly.

Tally stared on. From her holidays with the Marauders, not once had she seen Lily or James or Remus' mother. Melissa Black, she had seen once, but never the others. Rose Evans, she noted, is exactly like Lily in almost all. Almost. The bright red hair that went just past her shoulders (Lily's is past her ankles) and deep, brilliant green eyes that shone brightly. Yvonne Potter had soft but firm brown eyes. Her features were gentle and caring. The eyes had mischief in them, but not one in which each of the Marauders had. Her jet-black hair went as far as Rose's, just a little past the shoulders.

'Lily Evans! I should expect you to do better!' Rose cried.

'James! You should be much disciplined!' Yvonned cried after.

Sirius and Remus sighed in relief that their mothers weren't there. Just then, the door slammed open, and in march Melissa Black and Anne Lupin, determination in their features. Tally saw that Remus and his mom shared almost the same features; light shaded hair, the deep, mysterious eyes and steady brow. Melissa seemed to have passed down her dark black hair to Sirius, only that her's is wavy and soft, unlike Sirius' straight one.

'Mom!' the two exclaimed at the same time.

'Rolling on the floor?' Anne cried in disbelief.

'And playing in class?' Melissa cried.

'WHEN ARE YOU ALL EVER GOING TO LEARN?' the four women boomed.

Tally, Pertsy, Nina, Sita, Dan and Thomas watched on, horrified by the sudden appearances of the Marauders' mothers. Wait, did I just say their mothers? Scratch that! Their _parents_ are here! Dan said mentally to himself.

The door had slammed open again and four men marched in, all with bright, glowing faces, twinkling eyes and a weird aura about them which made them feel more like schoolboys than adult, which, probably is.

'DAD!' the four exclaimed. Their mother's appearances were already a shock to them, but their fathers? Weren't they supposed to be at the Ministry of Magic?

'We're here for buisiness,' Anne said.

'What sort?' Lily asked.

'Voldemort.'

'Oh.'

Orion turned to the watching six.

'Hiya!'

Mutely, they raised their hands in response. Orion, Edward, William and Romulus looked at them in interest before coming to their conclusion. They threw a dungbomb and set fireworks at them, in which they got hit by.

With that, the Marauders' parents waltzed out. Lily was slumped onto her chair tiredly. Her mother had tried to burst into her mind, wanting to find out how much her daughter had learnt, but failed, since Lily had fought it off strongly.

'That your parents?' Pertsy asked, still dazed.

'What else are they, our grandparents?' Remus moaned.

'Typical to come to Hogwarts when we're having the fun of our lifetime,' Sirius groaned.

'Lily, you okay?' James asked.

'Guess so,' Lily replied, still tired after the mental battle in her head.

'Good. Next stop; Muggle Studies!' Sirius cheered as they rushed out of the room as fast as they could to get a computer and change it so that it will bomb Professor Rivers if she meddles with it, even a little bit.

'Their parents are interesting, aren't they?' Tally asked, still shaken.

'Very interesting,' Dan agreed, staring at nothing in particular.

**

The four teenagers ran their way to the Muggle Studies class, carrying two computers between them. Remus' sharp ears heard some sounds from an unused classroom and it pricked up, picking the voices. Their parents, Dumbledore and other people he don't know.

'Ssh! I think I hear something,' Remus whispered. Together, they huddled close to the door and Sirius produced a glass, so they can hear everything clearly.

'You-Know-Who is at his height of powers! If we don't stop him now, we'll be cherished! We should let the Aurors use the Unforgiveables and let them catch those Death Eaters; killed, if it must!' a man's voice said.

'Barty Crouch! You should've known better than do that!' William's voice cut.

'I am true to my choice, William, so don't stop me!' Barty Crouch replied.

'Crouch, I'm surprised!We should catch them quick and easy! No one is to be killed!' Anne protested.

'I can't say she's right,' Dumbledore's firm tone rang. 'We should make them confess and-'

'Crouch! That is never a way! We catch 'em, put 'em in Azkaban and be done!' a gruff voice said.

'Now, Alastor,' Rose began.

'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!' it boomed. The Marauders felt shaken as they pressed their ears harder.

'Moody! Stop saying this!' Crouch stormed.

'I have my tongue and I will speak, nonetheless. We are NOT to kill anyone!' Moody said loudly.

Suddenly a gasp was heard and Lily realized the very worst. But before she could even react, the door had slammed open and Rose Evans tower over the four, who smiled sheepishly. Inside, they saw a fairly large group of people, most of them Ministers. The Ministry of Magic were all gathered there, along with Dumbledore.

'Er, hi?' James said weakly. His hands suddenly felt cold, sweaty and he was sure that blood must've drained from it, since it was as white as a dracula's.

'Were you eavesdropping?' Dumbledore asked, seeing that their parents were all too white with anger to speak to the shivering four before them.

Quickly, they shook their heads.

'No, we heard someone saying "NOT to kill anyone" so we decided to see what was up,' Lily answered, seeing that everyone was tongue-tied. Again, Lily felt her head aching, since her mother is trying to invade into her mind again. She fought against it, determined to not let her in and find out everything. Lily herself will be in great danger if her mother found out Voldemort is after their – the Marauders' – hide.

'Ah, that was Alastor Moody. Bless him,' Dumbledore said kindly. The four saw a wizard in dark swirling robed with an alert eye standing left to Dumbledore. That, they assumed, was Alastor Moody.

'Um, I think we'd better go for class,' Remus said, holding the computer tightly.

'What's that?' a familiar voice asked eagerly. The Marauders recognised him as Arthur Weasley, who was about two years older than they were.

'It's a computer. I told you not to bring it!' Melissa said sternly to Sirius.

'It's for Muggle Studies!!!' Sirius protested.

'Can I see it?' Arthur said, taking one from them without a word before inspecting it thoroughly. He prodded it with his wand and the string broke.

BOOM!

'Weird. Muggle devices – called computer – explode when you prod it with your wand,' Arthur said, interested, as he wrote it on his parchment. He was black in face and his red hair was standing all on it's ends and in all direction, just as half the people in the classroom's.

'Arthur! Stop messing with these things! Look what had they done?' Molly cried, gingerly brushing soots off her yellow robes.

'Okay, okay. Thanks!' Arthur grinned.

The Marauders stared open-mouthed. Had Arthur turned this silly after he left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? They refused to believe it.

'Go. Now,' Yvonne said severely. Without another word, they marched off to the Muggle Studies. Lily used a charm on them and it cleaned them throughly before they entered the Muggle Studies class, where Professor Rivers was waiting patiently for them. They gave her the computer ('It's a present, Professor,' Lily said sweetly).

Needless to say, the curious teacher began inspecting everything just as Arthur had before taking notes all about it. Right at the end of her inspection, she did the usual thing she always did with electronic devices. She turned it magic and test it. However, this time, she hadn't got to test it. She came with a conclusion that the computer explodes when you meddle it with magic.

AN: Yay!! I'm oddly full of weird thinkings when I wrote this o_o blame school. Blame everything that meddled with me [that's it!! My schoolmates! They wanna come after me!!] including tuitions, piano classes and all. I might come to writing one per week if time permits. So, how d'you find this? Hope it's fine, cause I'm pretty tired now. Review, please? Please please please? With fifteen floating cherries on top along with a mini-umbrella? And little dainty fairies dancing on them? Please?


	6. Lord Voldemort

AN: Sorry, I'm feeling a little off-color these days. Who wouldn't if you have school work, tuitions and so many classes to coop up with? Yep!! Down with skool!!!! And this IS their third year! Nope, not fourth, not fifth, but third. They're thirteen now J and *gasp* I won't be here to help celebrate your birthday! I'll be far off elsewhere L sorry hermione potter… and I hate maths just as much as you do; probably more, care. Hate it a lot! And those stupid conversation? O_o; okay, that's how it went in my mind when I'm talking to myself, so be glad you're not in it. and having the Marauders' parents will be heaven, actually! I just surfaced their bad parts in that chapter :P 

thanks to everyone who reviewed *sob* I'm so thankful…

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: You think I may run out of snappy comments here, but I hadn't!! This chapter's one is; I own everything!!! True! I owned them!! All in my dreams J

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 6: Lord Voldemort**

The sun is bright and shining, the flowers are gay and colored, the grass is green as green can be, the wind is whistling joyfully, fishes are swimming happily, butterflies and bees are busy, but what did it matter at Hogwarts? Mother Nature's sympathy isn't really curing everyone.

Bad tidings came almost everyday of every week, all because of Voldemort. Many old wizarding families were killed and murdered coldly by the dark wizard. Muggles also suffer, though causes may be unknown to the doctors. Almost half of Hogwarts' student had lost their families and turned orphans. Some of which their parents were turned into just a living shell, courtesy of the Dementors that had recently just joined the Dark Lord. Giants were seen rampaging all about and the Death Eater's circle is just growing bigger everyday.

Worst of all is that life had turned into a living nightmare. It's bad enough to dream a nightmare, but this nightmare is one that will never cure just by opening your eyes. It needs courage, hope and unity of all. People live to die; that was a phrase, but what if they hadn't meant to die just yet? Innocent souls were wandering all about without even knowing why they are there. Was this really meant to happen? Or had destiny decided to end the life of the universe?

Today, Dumbledore had gathered the teachers and students in the Great Hall. Just what would they hear from him? A warning? An advice? Leaving the school? Or worst of all, death of another family? The school shared their troubles deep and passionate. Or at least, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor does. Slytherin merely snarled and kept themselves far.

Lily, James, Sirius and Remus walked solemnly to the Hall. Things weren't meant to be this way. Catching sight of Anna Hopkins talking to her Gereld, Lily felt a sudden pity overwhelming her. The girl wouldn't know what will come. Being students of the school is fun, but having to attend a school meeting like a funeral is definitely the other way round.

Just the week before, it was Thomas DeAnne's family that got murdered coldly by Voldemort. News had said that the DeAnnes refused to join the Dark side, and they were killed straight off by the Avada Kedavra curse. Thomas DeAnne had not cried. He was so sad that he couldn't even cry. However, it was rumoured that Sprout found him almost hanging himself.

Dumbledore stood gravely at the High Tables. The blue eyes weren't twinkling. They were stony, full of rushing emotions. When he stood up, everyone held deep breath. All hopes of the Dark Lord defeated were lost by his sad tone.

'I shan't keep you long here, as you have to attend to your classes. Today, I bring another one of the worst waves. Maybe it is better if a tornado has come and hit us, but we needn't it. We were already hitten harder than all those, as I'd known. This week, it is my grave duty to inform you, that the Hopkins had been killed.'

Five gasps came from the Ravenclaw table, all of, whom, were the Hopkins. Lily turned to Anna. She was white, and shaking with remorse grief. Next to her were her brothers and sisters, all of whom were also ghost white and quivering.

'I'm really sorry, Justin, Jane, Mary, John and Anna, to have to tell you this. I hated to be a bearer of bad tidings myself, but I had no choice. Professor Flitwick, can you please see them to the common room?'

With a squeak, Flitwick sobbed loudly and brought all five Hopkins away, whom all looked petrified at the news.

'It is most Hogwarts students which had lost their families,' Dumbledore started again. 'I believe that Voldemort has a motive, as there was a pattern in all his killings these days. Ten third-years had all lost their families, Anna Hopkins included.'

The Marauders felt a lump rising in their throat as they recalled the warning. The ten thirteen-year-old orphans were all of their knowings. Anna, Thomas DeAnne, Thomas McMillan, Tally, Terry Putmorey, Drolly Ternningham, Rollent Ballstic, Nina, Serena Tappers and Ruby Tappers. None of them were Slytherins, however, and the Marauders felt bitter for that. If it were the Slytherins, they wouldn't even feel sorry. Well, quite, but not very.

'I believe he is after something. Something he really wanted to go after his motive, for there is a message each time a family is murdered. It reads; 

"Beware of the snake and heed no doubts;

for this is a warning to you, filthy little grubs."'

James gave a loud gasp and started falling down suddenly. Sirius and Lily, who was sitting nearby him, caught him just in time.

'James? Are you alright?' Lily asked when James sat back up in his chair.

'My head…'

'I have a headache pill,' Remus offered. James took it gratefully before swallowing it down. Lily tried communicating in his mind, knowing that even if she mayn't enter, at least she might have a raw idea of what had happened. To her surprise, she entered it easily, without needing to open the gate.

_Lily… Voldemort…_

_What's with him? Wait, I'll link with Sirius and Remus._

_What happened, James?_

_Are you okay?_

_Voldemort. He's coming. I can feel it._

_How?_

_Remus, this is no time for questions!_

_Yeah! He's coming after us!_

_I feel it in my head. It rang when the warning was there, but it wasn't this pain._

_Calm it, James. I can try to heal you. I just found out how to._

With that, their mind connection broke. They opened their eyes, only to find a hundred over looking strangely at them. The Gryffindor third-years were crowding over them worriedly.

'Are you all right?' Tally asked. Lily didn't reply, but she concentrated her psychic powers (they can be used to cure various things) and tried her luck in helping James up.

'Dumbledore!' Sirius said, when he gained back his voice. Quickly, he pushed everyone aside.

'Sirius, what are you trying to do?' Remus said, pulling him back.

'Tell Dumbledore. We have to,' Sirius said seriously.

'Si, wait. James' coming back,' Lily said in relief. Sirius waited as everyone crowded over the four of them, wondering what had made James rendered unconsious, followed by each of the Marauders.

'Move back! Back back back!' Remus instructed. The crowd moved, but not much. They were all curious. Lily didn't bother pulling out her wand. Why should she? The school was already thrown far back by a little barrier Lily's psychic powers had created. It was getting stronger and firmer each day, and Lily had no problem controlling it perfectly well.

'Ow…' James moaned tiredly. 'Lily. Voldemort. He's on his way.'

Just then, Lily, too, felt a sharp prick that sent shivers down her spine.

'H- he's not on his way. H- h- he's here,' Lily said, barely above whisper.

Everyone was beginning to try to surround them again, but the barrier Lily held was firm and stood rooted to it's ground.

'Lily, let us in!' Tally cried, banging hard at the shimmering wall.

'No! Not now!' Lily shrieked. If possible, the wall went even thicker than before. Dumbledore ran down to them as quick as he can and demanded to be let in. Lily let him in and Remus and Sirius were telling about the warning they had received, how James and Lily had felt Voldemort's presence. Lily just concentrated on healing James. When James could at least walk, he went to Dumbledore before rattling on from where Sirius and Remus stopped.

'Oh no!' Remus gasped suddenly, pointing at a large hole which was appearing somewhere. Bristles and mutterings were heard all around as the Dark Lord himself appeared from it, slowly coming to view. Half the students shrieked louder than Lily. Some fainted and some just stood petrified. Sirius swore that Snape was sneering at them, along with the other Slytherins.

Lily gasped and concentrated even more on healing James. Eventually, the barrier dropped off, since Lily was more into healing James than keeping the barrier on. Sirius just stood rooted on the ground and Remus was gripping hard on his wand.

Dumbledore stood firmly at his place as James was recovering very quickly.

'Ah, so they received my warning, didn't you?' Voldemort said is a soft hiss. A snake slithered from his neck and to the floor, just waving and turning. 'Waited for me patiently.'

'When did you receive the warning?' Dumbledore asked, turning to Lily.

'Last Summer. We received our letters at that time, too,' Lily gasped, collasping for a quick rest.

'Those booklists,' James said, seeing that Dumbledore didn't understand.

'You didn't tell me?'

'Um, we wanna go Hogsmeade…'

'So we thought-'

'It may be some sorta prank-'

'Played. But it-'

'Doesn't seem to be that.'

'And the Halloween night! I received that message from him at the Hogsmeade attack!' Lily said in dismay.

'Ah, so, you hadn't told anyone yet, did you?' Voldemort cackled. 'Well, made things easier for me. Maybe you hadn't known of my arrival here yet, maybe you do. I will tell you, all the same. I am here for only one reason, and only one reason.'

'What is it?' Dumbledore asked.

'To kill Lily Rose Evans, James Edward Potter, Sirius Orion Black and Remus Romulus Lupin,' Voldemort cackled. 'The four had much been messing in my time already and it is time they die.'

'Why us? We're only thirteen year old, teenagers at the very least,' Sirius said.

'You're stooping so low, if you wanted us,' James said.

'Stooping low? That's dropping low!' Remus said.

'Mess what? Your time? Die? Really weird, Voldemort. Or should I say, Tom Riddle?' Lily said.

Voldemort was taken aback by this.

'You know that I hated that name. That common, useless, muggle name,' Voldemort hissed.

'Really? You do? That's good,' Sirius said. Anyway, if they were to die, they should at least be happy when they died. Who wants to be a ghost with an unfinished buisiness? Nah! Sirius rather go to the dark hell than that.

'Well, why us?' James asked.

'You know that well, Dumbledore,' Voldemort hissed. Dumbledore went thoughtful.

'Did I?'

'I shall revive your memory, if at that. When I was once a school boy here,' Voldemort began. Lily tried to imagine Voldemort being a school boy. She came up with a weird looking snake.

'There were five students by your name. Lily, James, Sirius and Remus. The last one remained a mystery.'

'And what has that got to do with us?' Remus asked, yawning loudly.

'They were always taunting. Pulling a prank and everything at me,' Voldemort said with pure venom. 'I sweared I'll kill them with my own hands one day, but I never did. They died themselves.'

'Mmhm… this would go really well for History class,' Sirius said, writing with his quill.

'They were exactly like you. A redhead, three blackheads and a fair one,' Voldemort hissed. 'I'd just received news from a faithful Death Eater, that they were reincarnated again. Reincarnated into _you_!'

'And your point is?' James said.

'I had vowed that I'd kill the five of you. I-'

'One moment please,' Lily stopped. 'Five? There are only four of us!'

Voldemort snorted, much to everyone's surprise.

'You think so, Lily. The last one has remained an unsolved mystery in my memory,' Voldemort said with hatred.

The Marauders waited patiently for him to continue.

'Waiting for death, huh? Very well, you shall be challenged into a wizard duel. The four of you against me, Lord Voldemort!' Voldemort said with a high-pitched cackled. Everyone's blood froze right there and then, but the Marauders looked at each other confidently. Behind, Dumbledore was shaking his head, but he had to agree. If the Marauders win the duel, Voldemort will be gone. It is better than them being killed straight off just like so.

The Marauders nodded and the Hall went into deep murmurs.

'Alright then. We accept your challenge,' James said. Just then, the door burst open. Nine men and women ran in with their robes billowing after them. Each one of them held their wand tightly as they went over to the middle.

'Lily! How dare you not tell me about this!' Rose shrieked. 

'You could be killed!' Gram said.

'How could you all not say even a word?' William said.

'James!' Edward cried.

'Why didn't you even say a word!' Yvonne said.

'Sirius Black! You should've known better!' Orion shouted.

'Don't you dare accept that duel!' Melissa practically screamed.

'Remus! Don't you dare!' Romulus stomped.

'If Rose hadn't said, we'd be clueless!' Anne said.

The Marauders didn't say a word, but gaze solemnly back at their parents.

'Tally! They didn't accept, did they?' Rose said to the blonde. Caught by surprise, Tally slowly nodded. How did Lily's mother know her name?

'No. No. You didn't accept, did you?' Anne said, dropping to the ground. Romulus helped her up.

The Marauders slowly nodded.

'We're sorry,' Sirius said.

'WHAT??' Melissa screamed.

'We're sorry,' Sirius repeated.

'You never said a word of sorry before,' Gram shuddered, feeling Sirius' head for temperature.

'Gram, we're sorry,' Lily said.

'Now, enough of this nicey-pamsy talk,' Voldemort sneered.

'Lily, you're a girl!' Rose moaned. 'You can't win him!'

'Hey, if we die, imagine how much less torture you'll have!' James assured.

'What? We'll torture even more if you died!' Yvonne shrieked.

And the Marauders talked as their parents screamed at the top of their lungs. Everyone watched on with amazement, even Voldemort himself. No one had expected the nine guardians of the Marauders to appear in Hogwarts school; not even Lily herself.

'Enough of this!' Lily cried at last. 'We will fight for we'd accepted the challenge, so there!'

'Ah, someone is pretty reliable here. I admire you,' Voldemort sneered. 'But not for long.'

The Marauders turned to face the greatest Dark wizard as Dumbledore led the hysterical parents and Gram away. Their mothers had all started crying, as if the four had already died. The fathers were all stoned faced, but their eyes were all pain with emotions rushing quickly.

'Now, bow,' Voldemort said, lowering his head. The Marauders did the same. Besides, they have their manners and they plan to show them off to the Dark Lord before they die with glory and dignity. 'Who'd like the first hit? Ah, since you are only thirteen, I shall give you the first chance then.'

The four looked at each other and James began counting them out. Finally, his finger rest on Lily. rose let out a sniff and watched red-eyed as her daughter went up, wand in hand.

'Maybe you want us to attack together? Since you're stronger? And we're only thirteen,' Lily said.

'Very well, but that will not change anything,' Voldemort said silkily.

Everyone watched, breath all held tightly. Here is a real wizard duel, unlike their childish ones. And here's a wizard duel that is Voldemort over four thirteen-year-old school teenagers. The Hopkins had joined the crowd after a good rest in their dorm and a sensible talk with each other. They were now watching with their breaths held sharply. Not a sound was heard until Lily began her first move.

She held her wand up high before aiming it at Voldemort. However, it wasn't what the Dark wizard had expected. It wasn't any magic that came out of that willow wand; no. It was something rather silvery white that surrounded over everyone and the Marauders.

Voldemort laughed.

'Hah! Child's play. You never thought that I couldn't break such simple spells, do you?'

'_Expelliarmus!_' James cried, jumping forward when Voldemort was still laughing. The wand shot from his wand and into James'. Pleased, James smiled to himself as everyone cheered at him.

'You know that magic isn't just limited to wands. I thought the professors taught you that!' Voldemort said, flashing a glare at them before pulling out another wand. 'Then again, maybe it is.'

'Cheater!' Lily called at him.

'Well, everything is always a cheat,' Voldemort said silkily. '_Persistomus huala!_'

Lily dodged it easily, but the spell flew after her. Frightened, Lily quickly called out a spell which came straight to her head. Anything that came first in her head. Whether was it spell, magic or maybe Lily's trained Psychic powers, no one knew, for the chasing fireball turned into a squeaking mouse.

'Cool!' a Hufflepuff called.

Rose sighed with relief when she at last managed to go into her daughter's mind. In there, she saw that Lily had acquired skills much more than a grown wizard or witch. At least she practised, Rose said mentally to herself. Now why couldn't she enter the Psychic part? Lily's Inner Eye… it'd "saw" Rose in the head in had alerted the owner, which quickly shut everything out of existance. Rose fumed.

'_Avada Kedavra!!_' Voldemort shouted. Gasps flew all around the room as everyone shut their eyes, not wanting to know what will happen to their favorite four.

'_Tantularus!_' Sirius cried when Voldemort shouted, knowing that the spell is quite stupid, but who cares?

'_Petrificus totulus!_' Remus cried at the same time.

'_Impidementa!_' James called, also at the same time.

Lily didn't say anything, but Voldemort, after being hitten by three different spells at the time, was quite distracted. Her sharp daggers had pierced hard into Voldemort and silvery-green blood oozed out, drawings cries of sickness everywhere.

'So, you're not as weak as I'd thought, nor as stupid,' Voldemort gasped, coughing out a little. He had come, thinking that a simple Avada Kedavra would finish them all, but the four had proved him wrong. The snake slithered back up to him and he grabbed hold of it, sinking back into a small hole before vanishing off from the school grounds.

The nine that had been taken away by Dumbledore ran straight to the four kids, who all collasped with fright, nerves and shock.

'Lily? James? Sirius? Remus? Are you all alright? We were so worried,' Gram said, hugging them all passionately as tears of relief slid down her wrinkled cheeks.

'We're fine,' Remus assured.

'That was Avada Kedavra there you won! Hurrah!' William, Edward, Orion and Romulus cheered. So did the school, but Slytherins (a few of them did, but majority's no). The dads were finally hitten down by their wives, who were too worried at the moment.

'They almost died!! It is lucky Lily's-' Anne stopped, having got a warning look from Lily's green eyes. 'It's lucky that Lily's first spell worked in protecting them, isn't it?'

'I'd say lucky she "cast" it first,' Melissa said gratefully. 'Else, they might have gotten hit!! And and and-'

'We're alive, incase you'd forgotten,' James reminded.

'And when did Lily cast anything?' Sirius said. He was quickly kicked by Remus, who always had to do it because Sirius' tongue usually ran with his mind these days. 'Uh, I mean, she did, didn't you Li?'

'I'm so drowned…' was Lily's only reply. She had used her Psychic powers the whole day; healing James, protecting everyone, turning that fireball into mouse (was it her powers? Lily couldn't recall), and shooting the daggers at Voldemort had been the last of her drained off power.

'I guess we'd better leave now, Dumbledore. Would you like to go home with us?' Anne asked kindly. They all shook their heads solemnly and after a tearful goodbye, the nine sudden-comers went.

**

The Marauders were all sent to the hospital wing for two weeks for recovery of their shock, spent energy and fright. Fighting the dark lord isn't as easy as it seems, especially one that is almost at his height of powers. Besides, they got off lucky, since he had under-estimated them and Lily had used her powers to help protect everyone.

Needless to say, the Marauders became a celebrity.

'Lily, why didn't you tell anyone?' Tally asked, setting down a pot of honey and sitting down in the opposite bed.

'You should've at least told us!' Sita said.

'Well… I don't want to be your cause of being an orphan. I just only realized it,' Lily said bitterly.

'Oh well, maybe you can teach us the spells you used?' Pertsy asked hopefully. 'They're cool!'

'We can't teach it,' James said.

'You're not the one to use it!'

'Well, we speak on Lily's behalf. Unless you want her mother having her head, you'd better not ask about it,' Sirius said.

'He's telling the truth, so don't doubt it. If you think Lily's little temper is-' Remus was cut by Nina.

'Little? You're kidding! She almost had Anna Hopkins fooled that she'd kill for calling her a redhead! And you call that _little_?'

'Compared to her mother's it is,' James said. 'Hey, thanks for the honey!'

'What's her mother's temper like?'

'First, she'll starve you. Then she'll torture you. After that, she'll perform fifty different curses – very high ones – on you. She'll take away your wand, probably lock you in a cell and then she will start whipping you like she whips the butter. Trust me, she hit the butter hard,' Remus said.

'Sounds menacing…'

'Hey! That's only for calling her _enemies_ idiot!' Sirius said.

'Imagine if it's her,' Pertsy said thoughtfully.

'Mom believes in torture than killing. Says it makes the person feel to not wanna live, and it's a hundred times better. Maybe I should take after her,' Lily said pensively. Tally immediately stomp it down.

'If you turn out that way, I-'

'Oh, scratch it! I'll do it anyway, so don't waste your breath!'

And after a short chat, the four girls went.

'What d'you know. We'll be stuck here for two weeks. Two weeks!' James exclaimed. 'I'll be bored to death!'

'At least Voldemort's down for a while,' Remus said.

'No more killings for some time. Thank goodness,' Sirius muttered.

'Hey, what sorta curse you used? Something called tantarlus or something,' Lily said.

'Oh, that. It turns someone into a tarantula. Weird.'

'But Voldemort didn't even grow a hair!'

'Oh, he did. I saw some furry things poking from his neck.'

'I can't believe I'm this tired…'

'Hey, you cured James from his fright fully, done that thick barrier when we needed the space, showered that protecting part from your wand to make it look like a spell, turned that fireball into a mouse. If I don't know any better, I say you used too much powers!'

'Thanks Re… curing James is the hardest part. It drained up ¾ of my psychic! I can't believe it.'

'Uh, sorry Li.'

'Whatever. I didn't use any spell in that duel. Is that fair or unfair? I mean, it _is_ supposed to be wand to wand, not mind to wand, isn't it?'

'At least you didn't use physical contact, that's good enough. No one said anything about mind to wand though.'

'And Voldemort used an extra wand, remember?'

'Oh, speaking of that, I still have his wand.'

James pulled out a wand from his robes pocket. He placed it befor them and they looked solemnly at it, wondering what were they to do with this wand and how will they destroy it. Wands weren't destroyed easily, although it may look like it will break in a snap.

In the end, Lily glared at it and it broke into two before their eyes. A unicorn feather poked out and so did a peacock feather. Sirius inspected the wood, sniffing at it hard, before proclaiming that it's made of cherry wood.

'Someone like Voldemort used a cherry wood wand made with peacock and unicorn feather?' Remus said in amazement.

'I'm ready to bet that this wand isn't his!' Lily said.

James touched the wand gently.

'No. This wand belongs to,' James never got to finish, for the door burst open. Dan and Thomas marched in, a Get Well card in hand.

'Hi! Tired out? We made you a card,' Dan said, handing it over to Sirius. He inspect it thoroughly so that no trick was hidden.

'We're not as sneaky as you are,' Thomas said. Sirius opened it and a little tune was played. Confettis flew everywhere and a streamer writing 'Get Well Soon!' decorated above them gaily. Thomas caught sight of the broken wand.

'You-Know-Who's?' he asked, pointing at it.

'Um, no. I think it's your late father's,' James said slowly.

'What? How?'

'What sort of wand did your dad used?'

'Um, I think it's cherry wood, peacock and unicorn feather, thirteen inches.'

'Then this is the one. Sorry we broke it.'

'Oh. It's okay. I think I'll go burn it, since it'll bring too much bad memories.'

'Sure.'

**

The two weeks in the Infirmary passed quite pleasantly for the four of them. They didn't get 'too bored' for visitors streamed in at almost every moment. Madam Pomfrey said once to them that they are the most troublesome patients she had to take care of, mainly because the gang gets bored and pulled a few nasty pranks on her.

Just a day before they were let out, Barty Crouch and Dumbledore had visited them. The Marauders were planting a couple of dungbombs behind the sleeping matron when the two elderly wizards walked in on them. Grinning, they quickly hid away everything.

'Uh, hi! We were just waking Pomfrey,' Lily said sheepishly, hiding the Dungbombs from view as soon as she can.

'Good morning,' Dumbledore greeted. His greeting was replied by four earnest faces.

Crouch just looked at them blankly, and they sudden had a feeling of dislike building up especially for him.

'Who's this?' James asked.

'I'm Barty Crouch, currently running for the Minister of Magic,' Crouch replied, straightfaced.

I hope you drop, Lily said to herself.

'What are you doing here then?' Sirius asked, pulling out a book to pretend that he's a saint as he is.

Remus was secretly planting a little crab behind Crouch.

'Oh, Crouch is here on a request,' Dumbledore said, as though not approving this. 'He wants to appoint you as an Auror.'

'Sorry? Come again?' Remus said.

'I'd like to appoint you four as an Auror,' Crouch said.

'You want us to die right after we'd escaped death?' Lily said in disbelief. 'What sort of Minister are you?'

'And when we're only thirteen. You are out of you mind!' James added.

'James…' Dumbledore started.

'But it's true! We just escaped Voldemort-' Sirius protested. Crouch shuddered. '-and _he_ wants us to die at the age of thirteen? Lily's right; what sorta minister are you?'

'Children…' Dumbledore tried again.

'It's _Marauders_!!!' the four snapped at the same time. 'And we're _not_ gonna be Aurors just yet!'

'Marauders, the. Okay, Marauders, it's fine for you to refuse it, for I strongly believe you should since you are all too young to be Aurors. Crouch, now that we'd known…'

But Crouch was far too busy picking things from his back. The crabs Remus planted earlier had done it's job in pinching the man's back tightly, so now Crouch is doing a very funny wriggle to try and get it all off. The poor wizard thought a Dark curse was put on him, thus, yelled outloud when the crab pinched him finger, thinking that his forefinger had been eaten.

'Hey, you okay?' Sirius asked, prodding the fainted man (he thought he fainted out of blood-shortage).

Crouch gave a groan.

'Oh well, I guess I'll get him out. _Mobilicorpus!_' Dumbledore said. Crouch looked like a hung puppet as Dumbledore directed him out of the door.

'That was fun,' Lily said.

'And those crabs! Remus, you planted them?' James said, chuckling to himself.

'Who else?' Remus said modestly, bowing to the three.

'Huh?' Madam Pomfrey said, waking up from her sleep. 'Oh, you again! What had you done now?'

'Pomfrey, we've been here for two weeks!' Sirius reminded.

'You have? Oh, I don't care. Eat some chocolate now and be done with it,' Pomfrey said, pushing four large pieces of Honeydukes' best chocolate into their hands.

'I'm getting sick of these,' Sirius mumbled.

'That's first,' James said.

'No, serious. I mean, if you eat this for fourteen days and after all your meals, you'll be sick of it! I'm surprise that a temperature hasn't come yet,' Sirius said, biting into the piece.

'We'll be out by tomorrow,' Lily said, and that seem to cheer everyone's thoughts.

'I'll be so glad to get out,' Remus said.

'Maybe you will be. The school's waiting to cheer on you,' Tally said from the door.

'All but the Slytherins,' Dan muttered.

'The Slytherins? They'd rather die than cheer for those who just defeat Voldemort and those who're Gryffindors,' Lily said, rolling her eyes. 'Trust us.'

'Well, maybe, since half of them are probably Death Eaters,' Tally said as an afterthought. 'By the way, Hagrid sent these flowers.'

'It's good of him to send flowers to us, but one for everyday?' James said, indicating the room. It was filled with flowers of all sorts, colors, sizes, fragrances and patterns. Chocolates covered another huge part, a few boxes of pranks in another and a heap of cards were scattered in a corner.

'And the flowers hadn't even faded,' Sirius said. 'And the fragrance! It would do for perfume!'

Everyone knew that Sirius had a very sensitive nose. Dan suspected that it has just as many cells as a dog's nose, but the boy denied it quickly, saying that it isn't his fault to own such a sensitive nose. Besides, it came useful in smelling out food…

'Crouch just can over, didn't he? We saw him with Dumbledore,' Dan said.

'Just saw Dumbledore directing him to his office,' Tally giggled. 'He looked knocked out.'

'Oh, Remus threw crabs into his robes. The rest is history!' James grinned, dropping onto the bed.

'Speaking of which, do you need the last two week's homework? You missed a lot,' Dan said, holding out a sheaf of papers.

'Yeah! Trelawney asked us to send you this,' Tally said, pulling out a few rolls of parchments.

'Speaking of homework, here's ours,' Lily said, throwing four sacks full of parchments to their way. 'We did them all, so don't bother checking.'

'How did you know? Oh yeah, you're a Seer,' Dan said.

'But Seers can't "see" what they get for homework, can they?' Tally asked, pulling out a roll from a sack labeled "Lily Evans".

'No, I'm not Trelawney, am I?'

'No, of course not, but still…'

'Help us pass it up. And make sure Corn gets his present for setting us a subject on Hinkypunks,' Sirius grumbled. He hated DADA and he hated the teacher even more. Probably because he couldn't seem to get the subject right or maybe it's because the teacher seemed to hate him for no reason.

'I wonder how Voldemort got into the school,' Dan said. 'You couldn't apparate or disapparate in here.'

'That was what we were trying to figure out,' Remus said.

'Maybe that snake? You notice that green snake right?' Tally said.

'Yeah. Somehow, it looked quite familiar…' Lily said, trying to put her finger in.

'Remember Corn's snake?' James said, referring to the stuffed snake the DADA teacher had in his office.

The Marauders burst out laughing. 

'Yeah! When we went for detention in our first year!' Lily said.

'What?' Tally and Dan asked quizzically.

'Oh, we bomb Corn's table in our first year,' Sirius said. The two nodded. The Marauders got into loads of trouble in their first year.

'And he gave us detention,' Remus continued.

'We went to his office,' James said between laughs.

'And we saw two stuffed snakes in his office! They're beanies!' Lily said, laughing. The idea of two stuffed beanies in a DADA professor's office was hilarious to the four laughing kids. Tally and Dan shot them looks, and they stopped laughing.

'Isn't it funny?' Remus wailed.

'Did you guys,' Dan started.

'Girl,' Lily cut.

'Okay, guys and girl, raid his cupboards?' Dan said.

'Raid? Nah!' Sirius said dismissively.

'Oh, we peeped though,' James said.

'Personal property. What's wrong with us knowing anyway? We hadn't blackmail him yet,' Lily said.

'You four are totally unbelievable!' Tally shrieked in a decent tone, so that Pomfrey won't kick her out.

'Why is that so?'

'Remind me to lock all my personal belongings.'

'Oh, no use.'

'Yeah, see, we can pick locks.'

'Easy as a cake.'

'Learnt that trick some time ago. All we need is my hairpin!'

'One of our treasured possesion; Lily's hairpin.'

'Trust you to do that!' Dan said.

'Just grow up!' Tally said.

Sirius suddenly looked interested.

'What?' the two asked.

'Y'know, maybe you should get together. Hook up,' Sirius said.

'Give us five good reasons then.'

'What? And you'll hook up?'

'Yep! I bet you can't even think of one; hah!'

'Oh, first, you guys keep saying the same thing.'

'Second, you guys look good together.'

'Third, your objectives are the same; get us to grow up.'

'Fourth, Tally Trevor sounds wonderful.'

'And lastly,' the Marauders concluded, 'You two are exactly the same. Nag nag nag. You'll make wonderful parents. So you are both officially an item!'

'NOOOOOO!!!!!!!' the two yelled. But before they get to point out any reasons in the Marauders' words, which maybe there is none, Madam Pomfrey had already thrown them out in less than a mili-second.

'And stay quiet!' Pomfrey said, slamming the door.

'What? You slammed that door!' Tally wailed.

'And you _shouted_ at us!' Dan cried.

'So that's why you two should get together,' James said from the window, pulling a mischievous face at the two.

'Unfair!'

AN: Waaah!!!! I know I can't write much action [take the wizard duel for example… it's BORING!] and that's why I rarely write much!! Realize that? None of my stories have ANYTHING got to do with any fighting or such types, whatever they are!!! Please review please!!!!!! Please! With a huge thanksgiving turkey [now, why is it here?], fifteen christmas puddings [and this???], mom's best chinese cookies [yep! Definitely! It's delicious!], chapati [okay…], Malay _kueh_ [good, good…] and a tubful of ice-cream! Wow! What a variety of food here!


	7. Animagi Plans

AN: Let's see… what have I here? Nothing. Boring boring boring. I bet you can't wait for Year Four to step in, huh? Since most L/J will be starting from there? Maybe, maybe. I'm glad for all of those that told me the [*cough*stupid*cough] dueling part isn't all that bad! You guys are the nicest people I know [and I know few]!!!! I can't speak french least understand it, but I know what 'au revoir' means! That good enough, I hope? Lets see… I envy you, hermione potter, I really do!! I have a week off cause it's Chinese New Year, but still loaden with work. Some new year… and I guess I'll have the last Marauder to have black hair, kay? 

One reminder: this has NOTHING got to do with the real story, kay? Don't come after me with a wand and crying _Avada Kedavra_ when I have half some things wrong and all. I'm really not planning to make it like the original story anyway.

Managed to get this done early, so no post for next week since I'll be gone. And there's no computer at the place I'm going!!!! Waaaaaaahhh!!!!!!

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: Roses are red, Violets are blue; I own everything, so sue me won't you?

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 7: Animagi Plans**

Lily woke up with a huge grin plastered across her face in the Gryffindor common room. She'd found it! At last! After a so long last, she had finally managed to find out as much as she can from the library's restricted section (they had duplicates of the Invisibility Cloak), their school books, a few extra purchases from Flourish and Blotts and maraudings in McGonagall's office.

'Okay, now what am I to do? What time is it anyway?' Lily said to no one as she checked her watch.

'WHAT??? Only FIVE in the morning?' Lily screeched before shutting her lips with her hand. They tend to run on their own if she didn't do that. Slumping down over her parchments she gathered everything into a folder before starting a plan in her head.

She will, again, bomb the Gryffindor dormitory wings. After all, she's feeling quite destructive today, so why not do that first? After that the Slytherins will get locked again in their dungeon. Hah! This time, they can't give her detention, for the chalk in an _invisible_ chalk! Lily had made her own version of chalk rings and had tested it once on Filch, the caretaker. He couldn't get out of his bed until the next day, where at night, Lily had to creep out of bed to rub it off.

But first, Lily grinned to herself before pulling out a box, the stupid Snakes.

Grabbing the gleaming cloak, she pull it over her head, making her totally invisible, before floating off with it. One of her favourite powers. You can float yourself or other people anywhere you want to. It feels like a ghost, especially when you have an Invisibility Cloak with you.

'Psst! Peeeeeeves!' Lily said in a chilling cold voice. The ghost turned around, looking everywhere.

'Come out! Out out out!! James? I knooooow!!!!' Peeves cackled.

'Nah! It's Lily!!' Lily said, still under the cloak.

'What? Where?'

'Over here!'

Peeves flew to a nearby suit of armor before knocking at it. 'Lilydums?'

'No!!! Here!' Lily said, tapping him. That is, if you can tap him. But Peeves turned all the same to come face to face with a grinning redhead.

'Aaaaaaaah!' Peeves said, toppling and flying straight far off. 'You're a _ghost_ already?'

'Do I look transparent to you?'

'No, but you're _floating_, Lily!!!!! I know! You're playing a trick at me! Let's see… puppet strings, puppet strings…'

'No, no strings.'

'On your head, perhaps?' Peeves took out a pair of scissors before snipping everywhere. Lily remained floating.

'No! I wanna go get the Slytherins! Keep Halley at bay, kay?' Lily fumed.

'Sure!!! Kahaha!!! Halley eh? Goody!!! I'll sneak in some-'

'Here, take this. Keep her _asleep_!' Lily warned, shoving a packet of green powder to Peeves.

'Surey!!!!!' With that, the poltergeist cackled off. Lily sighed. Trying to get Peeves to help you takes ages! He'll do whatsoever he wants first before listening to you.

'Oh well. Back to my plan. They should be thankful that it's Sunday today,' Lily said, pulling back the Invisibility Cloak.

'Ah!!!!'

Lily, the cloak half pulled, turned and look down. McGonagall had fainted with fright of seeing a half-Lily, _floating_ in mid-air without any wand or strings or brooms. Shortly, without any support. But is it true that she had fainted with fright? Lily quickly pull cover her other half before looking up. Nearly Headless Nick was floating there, dazzled, and the Bloody Baron was laughing and snickering on the other side. Apparently, it is obvious that McGonagall had fainted when Nicholas (Nearly Headless Nick) went past her.

The redhead sighed in relief before heading her way to the Slytherin dungeons to continue with her plans. Now, where was she? Oh yeah, lock the Slytherins all in their dormitories with her new and improved invisible chalk ring. Now no one can blame anyone, since the chalk rings can't be seen and it'll wear off only two days after, an add-on effect Lily added since she couldn't see the chalk ring.

'Shut up!!'

'Ssh! You're making too much noise!'

'Hey! McGonagall'll be on her way here! We're too obvious!'

'Whose smart idea is it anyway?'

'Yours, idiot!'

Lily gaped in surprise. Someone else, invisible, obviously, is roaming through the corridors at five in the morning on a Saturday. Students and teacher usually sleep in on the weekends to enjoy their loss amount of sleep (except when they take History of Magic or Divination course for their OWLs).

So who in their right mind will go roaming around at this time?

No harm in finding out, Lily said to herself. The girl listened harder.

'Ow!! You stepped on my foot!'

'Sorry! I didn't see it!'

'Why are we stupid enough to bring only one?'

'Who's there?' Lily's voice rang out sharply. 'You're behind the armor, aren't you?'

No one talked. It's pure silence.

'Peeves? That you?'

'Wait, that sounded pretty familiar…'

'Shut up! We don't wanna get caught after eating!'

Furious (she has a very short temper), Lily flew behind the armor and felt about for a watery-like cloak, since the person seemed to be using a cloak. Finding a silver linen, she pulled hard at it. Out revealed three very _familiar_ faces; one with an unruly hair, another with shoulder length hair and another fair-head with deep eyes. They gropped around for the Invisibility Cloak which Lily was holding.

'Peeves! Give it back!' James said, putting his glasses back to it's place.

'Stop trying to be invisible! If McGonagall ever comes by, we're dead!' Sirius argued.

'Is it even Peeves?' Remus said to no one.

'Oh, it's you!' Lily said in surprise. 'You didn't call me!!'

'What?' the three said blankly. Lily sighed before pulling the cloak off her head and the three gasped in surprise and awe.

'Hey Li!! You're flying!' Sirius marveled.

'Oh, sorry 'bout your cloak. You didn't call me!!' Lily protested.

'You realize you're flying?' James said.

'And you went to the kitchens without me!' Lily went on.

'Lily? You're floating mid-air,' Remus said.

'And you are so mean! I mean, I was at the common room sleeping and none of you woke me-' Lily trailed.

'Lily!' Sirius said at last.

'What?'

'You're floating! Or hadn't you known?' James said.

'You're pointing out the obvious. Yes, of course I know that!' Lily fumed.

'You didn't tell us!' Remus said.

'I thought you knew. April Fool was a long time ago…'

'Is it?'

'Unless your head decided to go like Si's, Re, try it.'

'What're you doing here anyway? Posing like a poltergeist? We wanna be one,' James said.

'No. I wanted to annoy the Slytherins. I quote Severus Snape "Saturn is the most unlucky day for the Slytherins" unquote. I just want to prove how right he was.'

'Saturn takes over only on next Wednesday!' Remus said.

'True, but Saturday is also known as Saturn's Day. Interested in joining my army?'

'Aye!'

'Then up we go!' Lily said, covering the cloak over the four of them.

Wait, Lily's floating, so how did she cover…? Sirius said in his thoughts. Okay, gulp a little and look down.

'AAAH!!!!!!!!' Sirius yelped.

'Shut up!' James hissed.

'We're floating!'

'You didn't notice?'

'No…'

'Ssh! We're at the dungeons already!'

'So fast?'

'What d'you expect we are? Tortoises?'

'I hate your stupid remarks on animals these days, Re.'

'Who cares?'

'Ssssh!'

'The toilet's that way.'

'No, quiet!'

'But you wanted-'

'Just forget it, Si! Lily's got some prank going around.'

'Yeah. Invisible chalk rings. Motivated by Gram's original chalk rings.'

'Cool! When did you make them?'

'Last month, I think.'

'You didn't tell us!'

'No one asked!'

'Ow! What hit my head?'

'The ceiling. You're levitating us too high!'

'I am? Sorry.'

'Forget it! Get on with the plan!'

'Okay, okay!'

The four carefully unload Lily's chalks and started drawing a huge circle again, just like they had last year, a day before the grand bye-bye feast. The teachers, finally given up, had dragged the Marauders to the Slytherin dungeons, suspecting a prank being pulled. The four had to wipe off everything to free the Slytherins (much to their annoyance) and received extra homework as detentions.

But Lily's plan this time seemed able to pull off easily, since it's _invisible_ chalks that are conducting the trick. They were sure that nothing will happen to them this time, since Lily had promised faithfully that the chalk will wear of by itself after two days, unless you want to rub it off.

Grinning, they started their job and planted dinamites. Lily thought that they didn't quite much needed it to bomb the Gryffindor wings, so why not torture the Slytherins while keeping them in their dorms? They can't run away.

**

Two days without any Slytherins was heaven for the school. No, heaven is not the word. Um, maybe on the seventh heaven's the best. The school was rejoicing and classes had to be cancelled on Monday; all just because the Slytherins were stuck.

Rumors went about that the Marauders had, yet again, trapped them in their dorms, but the teachers all dismissed it since they were 'Such angels this year,' said Professor Rivers who taught them Muggle Studies.

The Gryffindor third year had a little quiet party, celebrating the downfall of the whole of Slytherin house under four thirteen year old witch and wizards, each having had their own theory on how the Slytherins managed to eat (no one can go into the magic ring) and live.

They needn't ponder, for answers came themselves on Tuesday. Just as soon as they found out that they can come out, the Slytherins had all barged out to the Great Hall that very morning (some as early as four) to feast on their missed food for the last two to three days. Apparently, Lily's chalk worked better than expected.

'Morning! Had a nice day?' Sirius said to the Slytherins.

'Very polite way in pigging out your food, huh?' Remus said. Indeed, the Slytherins were pigging onto their food lavishly.

'No! They're not pigging! They're pigs themselves, remember?' James said. Half the Slytherins went red in face and Snape was already clutching tightly at his wand, shooting daggers at them. However, unlike Lily's daggers, which shot right at you, Snape's isn't much help, for the four Marauders simply ignored it.

'No use glaring, Snape. You can't get us pinned to the wall,' Lily said before sitting down at the Gryffindor table.

'Nope! Not unless you have – ow!' Sirius said. Remus and James had both stepped hard on both of his feet to stop him.

'You let your tongue run a lot these days,' Remus hissed.

'I can't help it!'

'Well, bear with it!' James said before pushing a bread into Sirius' mouth.

'Mmpf mmm.'

'If you can't keep your tongue, I'll put a curse on it,' Lily warned.

'Mm msyth mmpf mmm!'

'Fine then!'

'Oh, what was it he's saying?' Snape sneered from behind.

'Y- yeah! W- what?' Pettigrew squeaked. Blankly.

'Sfufid fnaks! Fet feat fto fiur fable!!' Sirius said, stuffing his mouth with more bread.

'Need a translation?' Tally offered. Snape immediately went misty-eyed. 'He said, "Stupid snakes! Get back to your table!!" So get back!'

Cursing, the two grumbled before walking back sulkily to their green cladded table. Wait. Snape was the one doing all. Pettigrew just followed him like a little shadow.

'Ever reckon Pettigrew ever learning?' James said.

'What? That he's a squib?' Lily said, spooning her cereal porridge. 'Unusual breakfast though. I thought the house-elves have more taste than to feed us cereal plus porridge. Or had they went nuts?'

'Very unusual,' Remus agreed. 'And Pettigrew could do with talking.'

Sirius swallowed his mouthful before choking hard.

'He's talking, isn't he?' James and Lily said together with the same tone.

'No! He's _squeaking_! Honestly, I thought an elf is hidden in him. Or maybe his parents changed his voicebox with an elf's? Hmm…' Sirius said, drinking his orange juice.

'How do you change your voicebox anyway? And what's it?' Sita asked, muching on her cereal porridge. 'Yuck! This thing's disgusting!'

'Oh, we learnt that in our muggle school. Pity there aren't any muggle-born in our year,' Remus said.

'Sad. What's your parent's objective anyway, to keep you off the magical world?' Dan asked, trying to reach the fruit bowl, but collasped into his milk.

'Back off! Back off!' Tally instructed when Dan was about to drip milk onto her.

'Sorry.'

'By the way, anyone seen Minnie?' James said.

'Nope. Not even a hair,' Nina replied. 'Should I eat this?'

'No, don't eat it,' Sita said, sticking out a tongue.

'And about McGonagall, not even a hair,' Pertsy, who'd been quiet all the while, said.

'Well, if you see her, tell me what she look like then,' Lily said, laughing.

'What?'

'Ooh! Dumbledore has something to say!'

'So long as it's got nothing to do with Voldemort.'

'That stopped some time ago, Si.'

'Yeah, but what if he comes up again? We'll be doomed!'

'I can't seem to find out who's the fifth of us though. Something like "Prediction Hazy. Try Again." Always appear in my eye whenever I tried that.'

Everyone burst out into gales of laughter as the older and younger students edged away. Who'll know what the third years would do next with the four mischief makers by their side? Anything could bomb, the chickens would turn could, they (the students) might turn into little Jelly-Slugs…

'Attention! May I please have all your attention?' Dumbledore asked.

'All ears!' Remus called.

'Brainwave checked. Report – clear!' Sirius said.

'Eyes wide open!' James added.

'Brain and subconcious alert – finished!' Lily concluded.

'The Quidditch match next week and the following practices are to be canceled.'

'WHAT?!'

'Yes, canceled, because Voldemort is rumored to rise again. Reports have it that he's gradually healing from the, um, weird curses someone gave him the other day. And his heart seem to have healed itself – slowly – from the crisis of being hitten by an ordinary dagger.'

A few laughters issued around and the Slytherins glared.

'But those practices!' Sirius started.

'Practices will also be canceled, for your safety. Voldemort is not one wizard you want to mess with-'

'Is he a wizard? He looked more like the evil sorceror!' Lily said.

'Well, he is one. And being defeated by thirteen year old teenagers was quite a humiliation to him there,' Dumbledore said, chuckling a little. 'I daresay that he'll be back for revenge.'

The Marauders shivered. 'We rather he not.'

'Using Avada Kedavra-'

'We'll be dead if we didn't shoot-'

'Any of our curses!'

'And we're just lucky he was distracted!'

'And-'

'Okay, okay, we get your message,' Tally said, calming the hysterical four before her. Seriously, what they'll be doing next is totally unpredictable!

Just then, Thomas was rushing in with a goat baa-ing at him from behind. What was weird was that the goat had glasses, billowing black robes and books hung under it's neck. It's horns were jet-black and the fur (or was it hair?) on the top was tied neatly into a neat bun. It's…

'MINNIE!!!!! So glad you decided to stop by!!!' Sirius said happily, bouncing to the goat as he tried to drag McGonagall. The goat butted, barely missing Sirius.

'That's McGonagall? What did you do?' Pertsy asked shakily to Lily.

'Do? Oh, we gave her some food,' Lily grinned.

'And you turned her into a _goat_?'

'No, actually, it's the spell that turns her. It turned her into an animal – maybe personality – and since Minnie loves to nag and nag and but and but, she turned into a goat!' James said triumphantly.

'Quidditch… canceled…' Terrykinns' sorrowful voice said suddenly from behind them.

'Don't bother him. He's been moaning like this ever since Dumbledore announced that,' Catherine said, dragging her boyfriend away from the third years.

'Boy, that hit him hard huh?' Remus said.

'You can't blame him,' Lily said.

'Yeah. This is his last year!' James added.

'Oh joy. Muggle Studies,' Sirius said, looking at his timetable.

'Do we have Transfiguration today?'

'Minnie's class, Minnie's class … nope! We have DADA though.'

'Wonderful. To miss a goat baa-ing in your ears in the class. Maybe we can put that spell again tomorrow?

'Dumbledore's watching…'

'Aw, who cares? Hey, Dumbledore sounded almost like a bumblebee, doesn't it?'

'Does it? It sounded like Dumb-Bell-Door.'

'Dumb bell door. Cool!'

'Anyway, DADA. We'd just finished on those draculas. What d'you reckon we'll have now?' 

'Last chapter. Hurrah!!! We're going a bit too fast this year.' 

'When aren't we?'

'We're _always_ fast!'

'We are?'

'Where had you been a century ago?'

'Lets see… I hadn't existed yet.'

'Typical. Anyway, for your very-stupid-information and Re, no offense! It's werewolf.'

'Why no offense to Remus?' Tally inquired. The four fidgeted a little. But Sirius came up with a story easily.

'Oh, Remus has a thing for werewolves.'

'Uh, you hadn't seen his room yet! It's full of posters!'

'Um, yea! He adores them, don't you, Re?'

'Um, uh, yes.'

Remus glanced uneasily at his friends. The last thing he'd do alive was to put posters of werewolves in his room and adore them. How was he supposed to do that when he, Remus Lupin, was a werewolf? Heck, even his name had to do with a werewolf! Remus; the greek legend where Remus and Romulus were a pair of twins raised up by a pack of wolves. Just his luck was that he was named Remus Romulus Lupin, of both the twins and his last name, Lupin, so happened to have a thing with those wolves.

Maybe he should 'change' his middle name. Not exactly change it, but just alter it a little. Just for the ones close to him, like the Marauders, will only know it's Romulus. He should change it to something else. Something that hasn't even got a connection with werewolves or wolves.

How would Remus John Lupin sound anyway?

'Oh, it sounded okay, Remus,' Lily said to him.

'I hate how my name goes, just when I received that stupid bite,' Remus said.

'Well, no one knows,' James said, guessing immediately what had Remus meant and through Lily's telepathic message.

'We won't tell a soul, remember?' Sirius said.

'There's a saying that goes "Never trust Sirius Black". Or hadn't you heard?' Remus laughed.

'Is that so? My name happened to be a Dog Star and I can't say I like it,' Sirius groaned.

'Mine's a flower. Of all things that it could be, it's a flower,' Lily said.

'So far mine's the most normal one!' James said proudly.

'Not exactly. James was your ancestor's name. I recall reading it in your family tree,' Lily reminded.

'You just have to spoil my fun,' James said. 'Having a dead ancestor named after was bad…'

'What're you talking about?' Sita asked.

'Names…' the four groaned at the same time.

'My name's like "sitar" but without the "r",' Sita said gloomily.

'I like mine. It's normal,' Nina said proudly.

'Mine sounded like "telly". Not like I'm a tell tale,' Tally frowned.

'Pertsy. What does it goes anyway?' Pertsy asked.

'The PERTs?'

'Thanks a lot…'

'Dan and Thomas are just fine!' Thomas said.

'Not exactly. Remember that Arabian that came to our village, Tal?' Remus said.

'Yeah! He said "and" as "dan" [_pronounced "Dah-n"_],' James said.

'And it's spelt d-a-n, too!' Lily said.

Dan went red.

'Hey, cool it! It's true anyway!' Tally said soothingly to him.

'Okay, so my name means "and" in malay? Wonderful…'

'You are so right! So instead of Dan [_Den_], we'll call you Dan [_Dah-n_]!' Sirius laughed.

'Hey!!! It's Muggle Studies!' James said, grabbing hold of his bag.

'Ah!!! Ancient Runes!' Tally groaned.

'Ciao! See ya later!' Lily waved as they sprinted off to class.

'But the food-'

'How would you expect them to eat this uneatable thing? I bet the cooks had a leave,' Sita muttered as she held out a spoon of cereal porridge to Nina.

**

Muggle Studies went quite smoothly for the Marauders. Only one problem when the teacher decide to conduct her experiment on their table.

'We'll be reading this today,' Professor Rivers said proudly, holding out a camera. 'I found this somewhere in the corridor!'

'Hey! That's mine!' Remus said, recognizing his old camera.

'It is?'

'Yeah!! See? Remus Lupin,' Remus said, pointing at a carved words at the corner.

'Oh well, mind if I borrow?' Rivers asked.

'You can have it, for all I care. That stupid camera _quitted_!!!!!'

'Twittered?'

'No, quit! He don't want his job anymore!'

Dan and Thomas laughed silently at the back of their seats, remembering the last year where Lily and James had handed them the Thinking Parchments and after when Sirius and Remus had stomped in, holding out the message about his camera quitting his job and not wanting to have anything to do with photography any more.

'Oh well. Maybe he'll work for me. Now, how do you work this?'

For fifteen full minutes, Rivers fingered the camera, pushing the buttons here and there and all around. And for fifteen full minutes, the class slept soundlessly, with the camera clicking every once in a while. Finally, Rivers smiled happily to her sleeping class.

'Done it!!'

'Huh?' James said.

'Wha? Oh, congratulations,' Lily said.

'So given it a try already?' Sirius asked.

'Or maybe given up?' Remus muttered.

'See, I press this little button up here,' Rivers said, pushing the top button. Out printed the very same note Remus had seen the year before. Remus put his head into his hands as Lily, James, Dan and Thomas burst out laughing loudly, unable to control their pouring laugher.

'Evans, Potter, Trevor, McMillan! What is it?' Rivers exclaimed as she read the note the camera printed out.

'The c- camera!' Dan stiffled with laughter.

'Q- q- quit!!' Thomas managed to choke out before dropping with laughter all over again.

The class was now puzzled. What in Merlin's name are they laughing about? Just then, the note was passed around by Sirius and soon, no one was in any condition to even think of what they are doing.

**

The Marauders were in their room behind the mirror, obviously bored. Rolls of parchments were scattered all around the room, their Zonko's products were lying everywhere unattended, books that were used for reference were all stacked on a corner and the Marauders themselves were lying on their bed, staring blankly at the wall.

'Hey Lily! What were you doing in the common room last night,' James said, trying to stir up a conversation.

He had obviously did it, 'cause Lily shot up straight at once and clasped her hand to her forehead and gave a cry of dismay.

'Oh my, why no one asked me earlier? I was doing some research!'

'You? Research?? That didn't quite match the picture,' Sirius said.

'Shut up, Si, and listen to what Li has got to say!' Remus said.

'Okay, see, Remus is a werewolf, right?'

They nodded.

'And werewolved are dangerous to humans; even wizards.'

'And your point is?' James said.

'If we're animals, we can help Remus! It's all in our DADA book all the time and we didn't even notice it!'

'Yeah, unfortunately, we're not a wolf,' Sirius said sarcastically.

'Hey! What I mean is that we will need a potion brewer and a Transfiguration master!' Lily said happily. 'Which is where James and Sirius walks into the scene!'

'What?' the three said blankly. Obviously, the Marauders were sleeping when McGonagall was talking about animagi.

'We'll be animagi! Just like Minnie!' Lily said, sparkles shining in her green eyes. Realization slowly rised from their faces as Lily's words began to sink right into their heads. They will be breaking the law, after all the school rules, and can help their friend at the same time! That goes for the saying of two bites in the apple, Sirius said gleefully to himself. Wait. Was it a right saying?

'Who cares? We're able to help Remus now! And we get new adventures than roaming the dark corridors!!!!' James said, dancing around, as if reading Sirius' mind.

'Yay! Into the forest at night! How will it be?' Lily said, eyes shining.

'Probably cool! Hurrah!' Remus cheered.

'Yay!!'

Just then, the four felt their minds being opened as a message crept into it.

'What's this?' Remus asked, feeling that everyone must've the same feeling.

'Oh! Someone's writing to our Thinking Parchments!' Sirius said. They waited patiently for the message to come.

_Lily?_ it asked

_What is it Tally?_

_You still in love with James?_

_We're NOT in love! _James sended as quick as he can as Remus and Sirius sniggered beside him.

_Oh, so when are you gonna grow up?_

_When we hink it's time to be old. About fifty-five?_ Sirius tried helpfully.

_If it helps, Tal, mine's written in green, James in black, Sirius in brown and Remus in red._

_Oh, okay. It gets confusing sometimes._

_So Snape still over you? _Remus asked.

_If this helps; I poured my inkbottle onto his face during Ancient Runes._

_Oh, wonderful!_ Lily said.

_Ingenius!_ James added.

_Any idea what's happening, Tally? _Sirius asked.

Immediately sensing that Sirius will soon let out all the secret that Lily and James had made the parchment telepathic, all three promptly stomped on his feet and waved a quick goodbye to Tally.

Sirius was groaning and moaning in pain. If you have your foot being stomped continously by three teenagers, it'll get sore, even if it's steel. Don't they ever feel the pain? Sirius said sullenly to himself.

'Learn how to keep your mouth and thoughts!' Lily said.

'Thank goodness we're quick enough,' James said.

'You really need self-control, Sirius. I'm tired of having to shut you up. Soon, we'll be carrying a few rolls of Spellotape around with us since one roll wouldn't be enough,' Remus said.

'I can't help it!'

'Then learn to!' the trio chorused loudly.

'Who goes there?' Flitwick's squeak came from the wall. The four quickly shut their mouth up as soon as possible.

'Did you see anyone?' Flitwick asked the mirror. The mirror, being the one responsible to hide the room, replied a no to the little professor. Still in puzzlement, he walked off, thinking of all the voices he had heard.

'Maybe a ghost,' the tiny professor said at last. There are so many ghosts in Hogwarts, but they rarely come out. The ones that usually showed up are just the Grey Lady, Fat Friar, Nearly Headless Nick, Bloody Baron and Peeves.

The four heaved a deep sigh of relief.

'I thought he had us there and then!' Lily breathed.

'Um, where were we before this?' Remus asked. His head was quite blank at the moment.

'Animagi. Yep! Minnie was a cat, though I think she'd fit for a Hippogriff!' James chuckled.

'We're gonna break the laws!!! Joy!!' Sirius cheered, bouncing all over the room.

'Stop! We're getting dizzy!' James said. Sirius just went on bouncing and bouncing, ocasionally letting out little gasps of delight to show him delight of breaking the law.

'Um, are we sure we want to do this? It sounded dangerous to break the law,' Remus said slowly.

'But we wanted to help you, Re! So, please?' Lily pleaded.

'But you're taking risks for me!' Remus said.

'We will have the fun of our own, too, Re! So, please?' James added his contribution to Lily's plea.

'Pretty please? With huge, great cherries on the top?' Lily said again.

Remus gave in, deciding that this younger 'sister' of his is way too ignorant and stubborn to even care. Why waste your breath? Just give in and be done with it. trying to talk sense to her is very hard, especially when she had spent so much effort in a work.

Sirius bounced even more when Remus gave in. He was chanting and jumping even more than ever, and soon, the trio were dizzy already. But after a while, Sirius fell down, fainted with exhaustation and dizziness.

'Told you not to jump too much,' Remus muttered. Lily was busy pushing a tubeful of pills and James was pouring in a kettle of water into Sirius' mouth. 'What pill is this anyway?'

Lily just grinned happily and started bouncing a little.

'Lily Evans! You gave Sirius the hyperactive pills? Are you nuts??' Remus exclaimed after smelling the pills.

'Well, he wanted to jump…' Lily started.

'So we thought we'd give him these,' James said.

'I'm going to be the only sane one in this group from now on. You two have definitely snapped in head already,' Remus said sadly.

'Well, joy to the insane world!' James cheered.

'Joy!!' Lily said.

'Joy joy joy!! We're insane, we're jumping; up down, up down!' Sirius said, jumping up and down and up and down.

'Aaah! I'm going to go insane if I keep up with you all whenever you're in this mood!' Remus wailed.

'Put up with it! Put up with it!' Lily chanted.

'Lily, shake and get back to normal!' Remus pleaded.

'Shake left, shake right!' James sang.

'James! Not you too!' Remus wailed again.

'Sad, sad, sad!' Sirius, Lily and James sang together at Remus.

Remus covered his face with his hands. How could the usually _three_ sensible ones of the group turned to only _one_ sensible one? Okay, Lily and James are just on _sugar high_, so keep calm, Remus. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now, they'll go back to normal after swallowing a glass of water…

Swallowing a glass of water… The kettle!

Remus quickly grabbed the kettle and shook it a little, just to make sure at least some water is in there. The last time Sirius went hyper, James and Lily had both chucked two kettles of waterful into the boy and when it was James' turn to jump around, the both (Remus and Lily) had poured the kettle into him, which is nothing. It turned out that Sirius had drank up everything.

Okay, now to pour it into their mouths. Why am I always the one to do this?

Remus quickly tipped the kettle into Lily's mouth, since the redhead was one of the most sensible of them all. The girl shook back and blinked.

'What?'

'James,' Remus said, handing the kettle over to her.

'Oh okay.'

Lily quickly ran after the jumping James (more of jumping beans that invaded his mind) and quickly poured the remaining of the water in the kettle into his mouth. James choked halfway and splurted some of it onto Lily's face, since she was standing right in front of him. Disgusted, she pulled out a hankerchief to wipe off everything.

'James, must you do that?'

'Sorry Lily! It got stuck halfway…'

'Quit rambling on James, Lily, and get Sirius back!'

'Remus, there isn't even a _drop_ of water left!'

'Why must it happen just now…?'

The three turned to Sirius, who was destroying almost everything in the room. It wasn't much of a problem anyway, since they can redo everything back by magic (one of magic's advantages, Lily thought thankfully), but what's annoying is his voice.

He was singing and their place is supposed to remain hidden, not found.

Sighing, Lily placed a silence charm on Sirius as James and Remus brought a bucketful of tap water. Remus yanked his mouth open as James poured the bucket into Sirius' mouth. He gasped, choked and protested (no sound came out anyway), but they kept pouring right until the very last drop.

This is the last time we're gonna make Sirius' hyper… James vowed silently to himself. 

AN: Great. I'm getting more and more busier. Maybe this'll have to come out once in two weeks already, with those stupid curriculum activities, never-ending tuition homeworks and school homeworks piling right before my eyes. Anyone wanna trade places with me? I'll be glad if we can! And no. No animagi potion until the next year!! Hurrah! :P nah, just kidding! Anywayz, none for next wekk ^_^; I'm celebrating Chinese New Year! I wish the same to those who're Buddhists out there!! Review, please!!!!


	8. Professor Corn's Curse

AN: Aaah!!!! This is the last chapter for year three!!!! I'm happy!! Wait. I'm sad!!! No, I'm happy! NOO!! I'm upset! I'm- … okay. I can't make up my mind, so bear with this. And yes, last chapter of year three. You can't really expect much from me now, especially when I'm drowned under piles of work and studies -help!- anyway, the chapters were quite long, so you wouldn't kill me, right?

Scrumdidilyumptious… yep! That's one nice word there!!!! And being a buddhist cuz of the Buddha figurines? Sounds interesting there… and you are all right. *sigh* I honestly hadn't even thought of what animal Lily or the fifth Marauder should be. A rabbit would be eaten straight off [eep!], a doe is just too common after the stag, penguin's outta the scene and I think a bear will kill the Shrieking Shack straight off. Oh well, I have a long time to think, since it's only their fifth year the potion will start working. No, my mind is not floppy when I wrote part 7 o_o; just thought they might want a headstart planning for the things. I'm from Malaysia, by the way.

_bunny chan_

Disclaimer: Whatever that may happen, I will definitely not own the Marauders and whatever it is that doesn't belongs to me, so there.

The Marauding Five : Year Three

**Chapter 8: Professor Corn's Curse**

Life at Hogwarts went normal for some time. Not exactly normal, but normal to the Hogwarts castle and it's inhabitants. How normal can Hogwarts be if four of it's most excellent students are pranksters? Maybe abnormal might suit for that word.

'So much for homework. And detention! With that stupid professor!' James wailed, stomping down the steps from their Defense Against Dark Arts classroom.

'Of all teachers, why must it be him? I hope he gets sacked,' Lily muttered, half-walking and half-stuffing her things into her bag. It seems to get smaller each day.

'Wonder when can Remus teach? We'll _love_ his lessons!' Sirius said, trying to rid off the upset feeling of having detention with the DADA teacher.

'Hey, I can't even do my work right!' Remus said.

'You beat James!' Lily said in shock.

'And?'

'He's the best. He even beat me…' Lily slumped.

'You aren't too bad yourself,' James said modestly, patting Lily.

'But I want to be the best!' Lily retorted.

'Girls do work at home,' Sirius said, mimicking what a Hufflepuff girl had quoted when she found out that she was at the end of the list.

'Hey!'

'Sorry Li, just kidding! Hey!! I'm just kidding!!!!! Aaaah!' Sirius screamed as Lily pinned him down tightly with her daggers. Everyone laughed as Sirius struggled to get his robes off without tearing it.

'Help me, won't you? Lily, let me out!!' Sirius yelled.

Lily made a face at him.

'Lily Evans!'

She stuck out her tongue.

'LILY ROSE EVANS!!!!!!!!!'

Lily gulped.

'Put him back this instance!'

Shuddering, Lily removed those daggers as Sirius turned to see his savior. It's William Evans.

'What are you doing here again?' James asked.

'What else? Work.'

They only then noticed a little detector with weird aerials pointing everywhere that he was holding. It wasn't quite easy to spot it, since it was so small it could be hidden by the palm, but with the little aerials sticking out, it's easier.

'What's that?' Remus said, advancing to inspect the item. Remus was always interested in anything new.

'Nothing! You kids go back to your dorm. Congratulations, James, for placing first,' William said.

'Lily's upset,' James started.

'Who cares? She is way too sensitive, aren't you, Lily?' William grinned, nudging his daughter. Lily broke into a delicate pout.

'What? That's how you treat your daughter?' Lily asked.

'Don't you dare try that, Lily. You know it'll never work.'

'I hate it when _you_ can read _my_ mind! Did mom gave you her psychic? Huh?' Lily demanded.

'…'

'She did!' Lily wailed. 'And I had to work for mine! So unfair!!!!!!' and the fake tears came.

'Hey, stop pretending, Li. Your dad can see through that,' Sirius said.

'Oh well. I hate it when my family is all psychic now,' Lily muttered. She guard her mind tightly again. _Never_ are they going to know how much she had progressed!

'What's Dumbledore's password this time?' William asked cheerfully, though his grave eyes seem to have a little more serious problem than old meetings.

'Let's see… what is it?' James said thoughtfully.

'You show us what's that first,' Remus said eagerly, pointing at the item William was carrying.

'This? Why?'

'Looked interesting…'

'And maybe could use for a great prank.'

'Great? Sirius, it would be excellent!!'

'Lily, Sirius has a bad head for pranks, remember?'

'Oh yeah…'

'No. You are not to see this,' William said firmly.

'The why're you here?' the four chorused.

'And no use trying other students,' Sirius gleamed.

'We're the only ones that know,' James said proudly.

'Considering that we went there almost every day now,' Lily and Remus both muttered. However hard they tried to keep their saintly faces (they managed at first), it is just too tempting to not play pranks after exams.

'Oh, and the teachers all went for a short holiday at Hogsmeade,' Lily said. William seemed to be considering whether or not should he tell them about the equipment item in his hands. How dangerous can it be if it goes to them. Or what will happened. Finally, he made his decision.

'Sorry kids. I'm an Unspeakable, remember? Now, can you tell me please?' William asked. The four frowned as Remus pulled his wand secretly from his back.

'We can tell you where is it,' Lily grinned, an idea creeping into her mind as it was sent as fast as that to the other three.

'Lead the way,' William sighed. Talking with the four of them is like talking with the court, however that was. But the four would do well together as lawyers in the muggle world if they study for law.

They led him to Dumbledore's office and stopped before the gargoyle, which was newly decorated with various streamers of all colors, balloons, ice-creams (those that never melts) and colored to look like a clown. The gargoyle looked in a pitiful state and seemed as if it had been standing there for ages like a man who was with a carnival, selling balloons, ice-creams and all.

The Marauders grinned their grin. The mischievous and yet truthful-looking grin before letting William up to it.

William stared. Okay, the password. What did Lily said when she said Dumbledore liked what sweet? Um, something like lemon seeds? Or was it toothpaste flour? Uh, maybe it's lemon? Ugh, who'd like that sort of sweet anyway? Yuck!

'Go on, give it a try,' Sirius said.

'Uh, toothpaste flour?'

'Nope,' Lily said.

Okay think. Rose gave you some of her psychic powers. Use it on… (he scanned the Marauders) Lily! Yep! Rose says Lily's psychic is very weak and quite harmless! Okay, now, concentrate… let me in, let me in, let me in…

'Dad, if that's how you use the psychic powers, that's wrong,' Lily said.

'Um, huh?' William said.

'You didn't practice. And you don't know how to use it.'

'Oh, okay.'

Great. Your daughter is telling you that you'd fail a psychic test for kindy? How wonderful. Now, I'm sure there's a password. Lets see… if I can't read Lily's mind, James' will do.

Unknown to William, James was another one with a really tight security.

'I'm getting tired standing,' James said.

Okay, time to change target. Ah! Remus!

'Uncle, I thought you're in a hurry? Or would you wanna give us this device instead?' Remus asked. Somehow, Lily had asked him to guard his head tight…

Argh!!!!! What on earth kids are up to these days??? I can't even get into Remus' mind? Okay, I won't go on Sirius'. If I even break in his, I might fall tumbling. Rose once said that Sirius' mind gives her the aches and made her feel dizzy.

'Um, lemon seeds?' William said to the gargoyle. 

It shook it's head.

'Kids, maybe you should tell- huh? Hey, where are you?' William asked.

'We're bored, so we're down already,' Sirius' voice called.

'Maybe you should let him in,' Dumbledore's voice floated.

'I want that device!' Remus protested.

'We can get it from him,' Lily assured.

'No problem! Just item-nap it!' James said.

William checked his hand for the device. True enough, it was gone.

'Hey!!!!!'

'William?' Dumbledore said. 'The password is lemon seed.'

'I told this stupid gargoyle that!'

'That was Lemon seed_s_. No "s".'

'Stupid gargoyle,' William muttered before placing a charm on it.

'You know, the four had decorated it enough already,' Dumbledore said, a twinkle shining brightly.

Accordingly, the four Marauders bowed.

'Sorry if they were such a problem to you,' William said, shooting a warning look at them.

'You're another problem when you were in my house.'

William grinned sheepishly as the kids shot him a cat-that-ate-the-canary look. Ohoho! Here's something to tease _all_ their parents about! If Lily's dad were a problem before, the others are bound to be just the same, since, according to their motto, it's "All for one and one for all".

'Now, why are you here?' Dumbledore asked.

'I'd rather them not here,' William shot a look at the teenagers. They smiled innocently.

'Out,' William said again.

'Hey! You said you'd _rather_ us not here!' James said.

'Out!'

'It's_ rather_ not _not here_,' Lily said.

'Out!'

'Na-ah! You're playing cheat,' Sirius said.

'Now!'

'Fine, we're not here!' Remus said.

William sighed in relief before seating himself down opposite Dumbledore. He waited for the door to be closed. It closed, but not the way he had expected it to be.

'Kids-' Lily's father started.

'Nope. It's either Marauders _or_ teenagers. Do we look like five year old toddlers?' James said.

'And we said we're not here, so start talking,' Lily said, dropping onto the couch.

Remus and Sirius nodded eagerly. Remus, to find out what the device Mr Evans is holding and Sirius, to find out what has to be so important that an Unspeakable has to come to the school. Sirius is one of those to put their nose into where they are not concerned, but he isn't the only one. In fact, all the Marauders are; but Sirius is the most active one.

William muttered things to Dumbledore and he pulled out the device, which seemed to rattle. Remus strained his ears, but caught nothing. Pity his werewolf senses weren't quite useful when he's human. Remus shuddered. Not that he didn't want to, but wolf's senses are sometimes very useful.

In the end, Dumbledore nodded and William left. Curious, the four crowded straight to the table; not after William shooting warning looks and glares a Lily for not telling him the password to the Head Master's office. To him, it's a crime and Evans shouldn't be caught – however mischievous they are – doing it. But the Potters and Blacks would celebrate alright.

'So, what is it about?' James started.

'Why's he here?' Lily asked.

'What's that stuff he's holding?' Remus queried eagerly.

'What did he say?' Sirius asked, pulling out a notebook.

Dumbledore stared blankly at them for a moment.

'Well, you could do me a favor and get me Professor Corn, please?'

This time, it's the Marauders' turned to stare.

'Huh?'

'Can you get Professor Corn please? Thank you.'

'Oh, okay.'

And still puzzled, they marched out of the office, each with a few questions in mind. What had William Evans said that made Dumbledore call for Corn? And what is that rattling device that he had brought? Why is an Unspeakable in the school, without half the Ministry with him? And what had their DADA teacher had anything to do with this whole event?

They turned a few steps absent mindedly all around the castles, avoiding the little traps the castle had planted especially for them, rattled some sleeping portraits, bang a few armors and finally, reached their destination. Professor Corn's office. Remus pushed the door open.

The room seemed to give an odd sort of smell, and beanies and soft toys were all around the room, just as it had been the days when the Marauders came for their detentions. Speaking of detentions…

'Ah, here for it already huh?' Corn said. His lips were tugging into a sneer and sneaky smile. Now, Lily asked herself, why am I feeling that something bad is going to happen pretty soon?

'Here for what?' Sirius asked.

'Why, detention, of course!' Corn replied. He gestured them to a seat, but neither of them took it. Somehow, something definitely felt weird. They hadn't came to this office – wait. They refused to come – ever since their last second year. Over the year, the room changed a lot. The only thing that remained in place are those plushed toys.

'Are we here for it?' Remus asked.

'I don't recall,' James said.

The smell seemed to smell like dead meat. The type that has a rotten smell along with everything. Lily could easily picture dripping drops of blood from the walls, when just a picture flashed before her mind.

'Well, sit down, and tell me what is there you want,' Corn said impatiently, showing the couch. Trusting herself, Lily marched straight to a nearby chair without even touching the couch at all. The Marauders followed her example.

'Nope, we're not normal students. We wanna be treated like adults,' James said, to Corn's furiously red face.

'Oh, and Dumbledore's after you,' Sirius said in a sing-song voice. 'What did you do? Turn your toy into a real animal?'

At this, the DADA teacher paled horribly. His lips turned into a weird color of blue and his eyes' pupils contracted with fear.

'Maybe he wants to fire you,' Lily said helpfully.

'If he dare do that,' Corn snapped, 'There shall be a curse!'

They shranked at this a little.

'Still, buzz off to find him first,' Remus said. Corn's tip-tapping of the highly soled and heavy boots went off with the echoes as they sighed a breathe of relief before allowing themselves to look around.

'The toys are still here,' Lily muttered.

'Stupid. He thinks he's a kid,' James mumbled.

'Hey! I only have Seriously Sirius; and that was my fourth b'day present from you!' Sirius defended.

'Yeah, we know, but who's this obsessive with toys?' Remus asked.

'This room smelled like a rotten egg,' James commented, scrunching up his nose.

'Same as Corn. He's a rotten egg,' Lily replied.

'This room looked creepy,' Sirius said.

'Same as Corn. He has this ugly teeth,' Lily replied.

'This room has a kinda smell I couldn't place. Not rotten egg, but something else,' Remus said, sniffing in more.

'What?'

'It smelled more like something that is rotten and burnt.'

'Ugh. Don't even go there.'

'Yuck! Re, how could you think of that? Huh? It's disgusting!'

'Yes, but it's true! And why did he looked angry when we sat on chairs; not couch?'

'I think something's up.'

'And he seemed quite nervous when we tell him to go to Dumbledore.'

'Right.'

'And who keeps this?'

Sirius was holding up a slim toy snake, green and dangly. It had a scaly looking body, two narrow slits for eyes and it's nose were more like two dots only. Lily laughed a little.

'That looks so much like Voldemort's! Remember? The one that brought him into the castle and out?'

'Yeah,' James said. He pulled out his wand before poking at it. Suddenly, something rattled and shook in Remus' pockets as the boy jumped with fright. Sirius looked around, expecting something, someone, to come and tell them off.

'What happened? Who? What? Where? Why?' Sirius jumped.

'Relax! It's only the stuff I duplicated! The thing Lily's dad is holding!' Remus said, pulling out the device, which is now practically jumping up and down by now.

'What's this anyway?' Lily asked.

'You're the one that's Psychic, so ask it!' James retorted.

'How do you ask an item?'

'…'

'See?'

'Shut that thing up! It's buzzing and screaming now!' Sirius said, pointing out the obvious. True enough, it was buzzing and yelling loudly, unlike William's, which just rattled. James pulled his wand away from the snake before touching it on the device. Somehow, the sound stopped.

'What?'

'What's this?' 

'Remus?'

'How should I know?'

'You're the one that's so anxious to learn about it!'

'Oh. Right.'

Remus then transfigured a few tools with the help of a couple of quills before testing the item – whatever it is – by touching all the soft toys. Oddly, it only reacted to one. The green snake that looked almost real. The four puzzled over this.

If they bring it to Dumbledore, they'll be punished by William for duplicating his stuff, since Dumbledore will most likely tell on them. If they try and solve this alone … only Merlin knows what'll happen to them. They had faced Voldemort just a couple of weeks ago and the dark wizard wasn't much heard of these days. If they leave everything as it is, well, one nice adventure is lost.

They waited and thought, finally deciding that they can take the risk of telling Dumbledore. Receiving scoldings from William maybe is better than anything, since they had gotten so used to it that somehow, it seemed as if a spell is placed on them already.

They walked back to Dumbledore's office without any attention directed towards them. Remus had hammered the device (which turned out to be not-hammer-durable) and they tied the green snake to a stick, just in case. If an Unspeakable's item react to this, it might be dangerous to carry by hand.

'Lemon seed,' James called before it jumped aside to admit their entrance into the secret office.

Just as expected, Corn is here and arguing with Dumbledore.

'But what's the proof?'

'Gamonde, Evans came to me-'

'Howdy! We disturbing?' Lily greeted.

'Evans came and you believed her?' Corn said in disbelief.

'Gamonde-'

'I have grant service to Hogwarts for thirteen years, and I am sacked by a mere child of thirteen?'

'Gamonde-' 

'Professor, that is totally unbelievable!'

'Yes, very unpredictable,' Lily said solemnly.

'What's unpredictable?' Corn asked.

'You.'

'What me?'

'You helped Voldemort into this castle!' Lily accused.

'WHAT?! Evans, have you any idea what are you saying?'

'Looks like Lily's hope on getting rid of him might come true,' James whispered to Sirius.

'Yeah. And we might get to appoint Remus as our new DADA teacher,' Sirius giggled.

'Professor Dumbledore, I agree that we should fire him!' Lily announced in a grown up-like way.

Remus took out a jar of purple flames before setting it on Corn, who yelped.

'Not this fire, Remus!' James laughed.

Sirius then held out a rifle, ready to 'fire' at any moment. Lily quickly pulled it away from him.

'No, not this too!' Lily panicked.

'How can I ever be sacked by a group of thirteen year old wizards?' Corn wailed.

'Correction: Wizards _and_ witches,' Lily said.

'Gamonde!' Dumbledore said at last. Keeping patience for too long isn't good.

'Yes, Professor?'

'You are _fired_!' Dumbledore yelled. Why must it be so hard to just say that three letter sentence?

'NOOOOOO!!!!! Why? Why why why?'

'Dumbledore, we found this,' James said, pulling out the green snake. Corn gasped at the sight of it.

'What?'

'Well, um, we sorta duplicate the item Lily's dad brought-'

'And when we touched this snake, it sorta jumped-'

'And we suspect something-'

'Since Remus couldn't find out what's wrong with that stuff he duplicated.'

'What is it anyway?' Remus asked.

'It's called a Dark Detector, and I do not think teenagers of thirteen should be holding it,' Dumbledore said, pulling the snake on the stick from James before examining it closely. The group smiled sheepishly as Corn turned as white as a ghost – maybe a dracula – as Dumbledore started prodding the snake with his wand.

'Gamonde? What's this?' Dumbledore asked.

'Uh, some toy?' Corn answered weakly.

'But that thing – whatever detector – rang, uh, jumped!' Remus protested.

'Lets see…' Dumbledore said, finally tapping the snake and muttering a few silent words.

Poof!

A scaly green garden snake was slithering gracefully on it's own on the floor, waving about here and there, left and right. It's eyes were blood red and it's abdomen was as white as can be. It looked almost ghastly and frightened them (the Marauders) for a moment or two. It slid towards Lily.

'No! Not me! Why me?' Lily wailed, quickly scrambling onto the desk. Corn just snickered.

'Call him off!' Sirius ordered to Corn.

'Now, why should I, Black?' Corn sneered.

'Oh, and why is it in your room in the first place? Kid-dult?' Remus snorted at Sirius' words.

'James, just get it off from Lily,' Remus said to the boy, who was staring at the snake with awe expression.

'Um, how? Much as I'd like to help, I can't seem to find a way,' James said.

'Idiot! Talk to it!' Lily yelled from her place. She let out another scream as the snake turned to slither near her. 'Why me? Why why why? Why must it always be me to get these weird animals about? Why?'

'Go on, James!' Remus urged. He turned to Sirius, who was still arguing pointless and definitely not offensive words at the DADA professor. 'Sirius, stop it!'

'Huh?' Sirius said.

'Help Lily,' Remus said.

'Why not you? I mean-'

Remus coughed a little before holding out a little calender and pointing at a day (yesterday) with a white circle on it.

'Oh, fine. You seemed in condition anyway,' Sirius muttered as James tried talking to the snake.

'Um, Mr Snake?' James started.

Hiss.

'What? Toodlekinns-Winklelynns-Triddlepinns?'

Nod.

'That's a long one. Can you leave Lily alone?'

Shake.

'Why not?'

Hiss, spat, hiss, hiss, spat and the little speech ended up with a tongue slither from the snake.

'But why can't you help it?'

Yet another series of hisses.

'Don't tell the world!' James snaped.

'What did it say?' Dumbledore asked.

'Um, nothing! Nothing at all of importance!'

'But you said "don't tell the world"'

'Yes, but I meant um, something else.'

'Oh, okay.'

Another long hiss as James nodded his head.

'Okay, thanks a lot! Hope to chat with you soon!' James waved cheerily. The snake slithered out of sight as James made sure Lily was at least five feet away from it.

'It told you THAT? I didn't know stuffed toys are that smart,' Lily mused.

'Wha? Oh, you can-'

Lily and Remus struggled to clamp his mouth shut. This time, James is the one who has his tongue running wild.

'Shut up!' Sirius hissed.

'Lemme go!!!!!!' James cried. They let him go. 'He-' James pointed at Corn – 'is a Death Eater.'

Stares were exchanged from Dumbledore to Corn and to James.

'James? You okay? Or had the conversation with that animal blinded you?' Sirius asked.

'I'm fine, Si. The snake – Toodlekinns-Winklelynns-Triddlepinns – told me that Corn's a Death Eater!'

'What a name for a snake…'

'Really bad. Hey, give him a better name!'

'And Toodlekinns-Winklelynns-Triddlepinns said that Corn turned him real with Dark arts.'

'Sad thing… poor toy.'

'He had to assist Voldemort to the castle as the "connector" between the two places.'

Lily, Sirius and Remus were having tears welling up in their eyes as their lips quivered sadly.

'And was abused after that.'

The four burst into pails of fake tears.

'Gamonde…'

'Surely, surely you don't believe them?' Corn asked Dumbledore cautiously.

'How dare you!' Sirius shouted suddenly, jumping on the teacher – ahem. _Ex_-teacher.

'You dare tell us that James is lying?' Lily jumped.

'He can talk with ani-' Remus said, but was cut off with a loud cry of pain from his foot. Lily, James and Sirius had tredded on it.

'Whose tongue's running now?' Lily whispered.

'Sorry.'

'Give us Veritaserium – um, I mean James – and he can prove it!' Lily said. If _she_ is given that truth potion… uh-oh! Adios to her secret powers!

'Don't bother. I believe you,' Dumbledore said to them. Corn gaped in disbelief.

'You can tell by their eyes, that they are not lying,' Dumbledore said to him.

'If I'm ever fired,' Corn said warningly, 'you will never find an ever staying Defense Against Dark Arts professor. Ever!'

With that, he stomped off in his heavy boots, robe billowing after him. He stopped halfway.

'And oh yes, I forgot,' Corn sneered, waving his wand. Laughing his head off, he walked off. If they had time to wonder the sanity percentage in his mind, they would, but now they are trapped in walls. Not ordinary walls, but fire walls.

'Okay Li, your turn to do something,' James said as he tried to run away from the flaming tongues of the red fire.

'Do what?' Lily asked desperately. 'And why me?'

'Put it off! And cause you're-' Sirius clamped his own mouth. 'Okay, you got the message so do it!'

'Dumbledore?' Lily said.

'Passed out from the flames. This one has smokes you don't wanna smell, let alone an old man!' Remus said, magicking a mask to protect himself.

'Lily!'

'But what?? Nothing I learnt can help in this!' Lily whined.

'Try transfiguring!' Sirius suggested.

'Can't. Won't last long enough to put this off.'

'Got a smarter idea then?'

'Ah! I remembered a spell!'

'What are you waiting for, then? Use it! Unless you wanna be a barbecued meat at the age of thirteen!'

'Okay, okay! _Aquaris_!'

Water gushed out from Remus' wand as he threw it at the nearing tongues of flames. It gave a sizzle before dropping into ashes. Remus did the same to each and ever "corner" of the fire walls and all ended up the same way.

'Nice and easy does the trick!' Remus said cheerfully.

'Pity it took us a long time to remember it,' James muttered.

'What sorta powder is this?' Lily said, taking some ashes.

'They're ashes,' Sirius said.

'Really? Sorry, nope. They smell like something though.'

'Who cares? They couldn't be much use now, can they?'

'Not exactly. Gram taught me that some powders can be reused again and again. Might come useful,' Lily said, pulling out a plastic from her pocket before filling all the powder-ashes into it. The black powder seemed to be glaring a little when Lily clipped the mouth of the plastic.

'There!' she exclaimed triumphantly.

'Good job!' Dumbledore commented.

'You awake? Why didn't you help?' Sirius fumed.

'Thought I'd give you some experience first.'

The four rolled their eyes at him.

**

'- and now, we begin the feast!' Dumbledore said as cheers whooped around the Great Hall.

'About time already!' Sirius whined from his seat as he dug greedily into his food.

'Well, sorry to have bore you by an old man's wheezing,' Dumbledore laughed.

'No. You _starved_ us!' Lily complained. 'Anyway, the food's good today.'

'So much better than that – what? – cereal porridge,' Tally muttered.

'Is it even porridge? And what sorta cereal is it?' Dan said.

'Wet cabbages?' Thomas suggested.

Both Tally and Dan held their tongues out in disgust.

'Don't even go there!' Sirius said, holding his head.

'Why not?'

'I hate cabbages…'

'Oh, Sirius the Great Eater hates something? Cool!'

'It's news!' Sita said.

'No. I hate carrots also, stupid vegetables.'

'Same here,' James said.

'Sssh!! It's time for the Quidditch – uh, I mean House – champion!' Nina hushed.

'How can there be Quidditch cup when the practices are cancelled?' Remus mumbled.

'For our house championship,' Dumbledore started. Deep breathes were all over. Who will be the winner? Gryffindor, again? For the third time in row? Well, anything is better than Slytherin…

'Gryffindor! Gryffindor!!' Sirius and Lily yelled happily.

'Nope. Sorry kids,' Dumbledore said with a twinkle. They fell, disappointed. 'It's Godric Gryffindor.'

'That's about the same!' Remus cut.

'Yeah, but Re, he said that Gryffindor just wo – WHAT? We won??? Hurray!!!!!' James cheered.

'You're slow,' Pertsy commented.

'Who's fast all the time?' Remus challenged.

'… Okay. You have a point.'

'Hah!'

'I know who's fast!' Tally jumped.

'Who?'

'Lily!!'

Remus scoffed. 'At studies, James is, Lily nope.'

'I detest that!' Lily said, hitting Remus teasingly.

Remus just poked a tongue at her. 'Liar!'

'Never lied!'

'You did, when you broke your mom's best flowerpot,' James said.

'Nope!'

'You said it fell off when Petunia ran over it,' Sirius said.

'No!'

'And the time with ol' Master? Boy, Mrs Lesphie's almost frightened to death when you said it got hitten by a car, when actually it turned blue,' Remus laughed.

'That's a _white_ lie!'

'Lie is a lie.'

'Tisn't!'

'Tis!'

'Tisn't!'

'Tis!'

'Where's Corn?' Pertsy asked, looking around.

'Oh, got fired by Dumbledore.'

'WHAT? Dumbledore has a muggle metal?? He's burnt to death?'

'No, Dumbledore has no gun.'

'You said "fire" and in muggle terms, it means pointing a metal wand and it goes BANG!' Dan said.

The Marauders looked at each other.

'In easy terms, we won't see him forever,' Lily said dismissively.

'See whoooooooo-oooo-oooo?' Peeves sang as he came waltzing – uh, _floating_ – in.

'Corn,' Sirius said shortly.

'Yes, I'd like some.'

'No, not that maize. Corn. Gamande Corn,' James said.

'What? Jamaican Corn?'

'No no no! It's a freezing corn!' Remus said.

'It's Gamande.'

'Definitely Jamaican?' Peeves said.

'It's Kentucky!'

'I thought corns came from East?'

'What went into your head, Sirius? It's America!'

'And so says Lily Evans, Queen of all Liars.'

'I don't lie! Well, maybe a few white lies, but not black ones!'

'Enough already!!!! Look at Snape!' James shouted. In response, all heads turned to the greasy-haired, hooked-nose Slytherin.

'What?' the other three said. James just urged them to look on. Snape turned into a very small, chick-sized hawk. No, not hawk. More of a mutilated hawk. It had black grease-filled feathers, sharp eyes of two colors (oddly, gold and red), a very hooky nose that points up and down, 90° and legs way too small to support it's size. Snape tumbled over his short feet.

Half the Slytherins stared as everyone burst out laughing. Halley walked briskly over before sending the mutilated chick-hawk to Madam Pomfrey, who thought that it was a trick by Halley to be pulled at her for the fun of it. She refused to even touch it ('It's too greasy! And not even real, maybe!' Pomfrey protested) until Snape pulled a quill from her table to write "Help! Potter turned me into this!"

'Into this? James Potter is really good in transfiguration,' Pomfrey said cautiously. 'Turning someone into a half mutilated chick-hawk is definitely not his standard.'

"Who cares? Now heal me!"

'No. Not if you are that demanding. And how should I know? Maybe Halley put a spell so you can write!'

"Oh yeah? Then I want you to know that you're a stupid, egoistical, feather-headed, lousiest, most cruel matron ever!"

'Really? Maybe I should take a leaf out of that Potter group's book and start cursing you?'

"Don't you dare!!!!"

'Fine with me. I'm tired of playing with you. _Boingo sa no_!' Pomfrey said, tapping her wand. Snape went bouncing down the castle, and would be knocked dead if it weren't for his miniature wings. But as soon as he neared the Infirmary window, Pomfrey was shaking out bits from her frying pan, thus, accidentally hitting him right down to the lower window.

'Did I hit something?' Pomfrey said as she tried to recall.

'Poppy? Have you made back Severus?' Halley called.

'Oh, Holly. No. I think I tossed that ugly animal down the window.'

'You WHAT?!'

'You heard it alright.'

And with that, Halley dropped onto a nearby bed. Just as Pomfrey was fanning the professor back to consiousness, four people walked by, each of them grinning broadly.

'How's Snape? Thought we'd come send his clothes,' James grinned, pulling out a pair of black robes and wizard hat.

This time, Pomfrey fell on top of Halley, just as she awoke.

'Guess he was gone?' Sirius said.

'Can I come in now?' Lily asked outside.

'Nope. No Snape. Yeah, come on in,' Sirius said.

'How can I trust you?'

'He's right, Lily,' Remus said.

'How should I know? You're turning mental like Sirius!'

'Okay, then you can come in,'James said. Lily bounced in to look around.

'Where's he anyway?'

'I'll bet anything that Pomfrey got mad and killed him,' Sirius laughed, holding out the parchment on which Snape had written his conversation with the matron.

'Heaven!' James grinned

'Cool! She saved our neck!' Remus said.

Lily didn't rejoice.

'I just wished she really did. She just threw him out and he flew back, only to fall into the lower window.'

'Let's just find him and bury him!' Sirius suggested.

'Nah! We'll burn him!' James said.

'Didn't you read our History of Magic book? We can't burn witches or wizards since we're resisting those flames!' Lily said.

'Yeah whatever. Use your psychic?' Remus said. 'Ow!'

'Sssh!'

'Okay, I will.'

And at the lower window, we see Severus Snape, the mutilated chick-hawk, found half his feathers (aka hair) burnt into ashes next to him.

AN: okay, any complains? I'm writing the last part when I'm suffering from school work and after Chinese New Year, so be nice and please, pretty please, review for me? I know I was bored and everything, making the story a bore, but I really do hope you liked this!! And no, I am not sick, in case you're wondering my sanity. I'm having flu though, so I'm under medication. Ack! Homework!! What torture!! Year four after my rest for a week, okie? Promise! I'm sure my flu'll get better by that time. Having a bad time here… achhoooo! 'scuse me… *grabs a tissue*


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